Thursday Randomness

I have discovered that I need to brush up on my grilling skills.  I usually left it to the guy on hand to man the grill.  This evening I decided to grill a contre-filet steak for dinner.  I think I let it cook a tad too long.  Then again, it might not have been the best cut to grill.

I happen to peruse the entertainment section of the paper today and noticed that Ani DiFranco will be playing here in November!  Tickets are supposed to go on sale tomorrow at noon.  I went to her website and saw that there was a pre-sale code.  *click* *click* Yay!  I ordered 2 tickets for her show.

I think my cold is kinda going away.  I've been hitting it hard with a barrage of stuff.  I'm not as stuffed up as I was this morning.  Well, actually, the stuffiness seems to come and go.  Bottom line is that I am just glad that I can breathe.

The cats will be costing me a few bucks in the near future.  Both will need to have some dental cleaning done on them soon.  I've booked an appointment to have Jum examined.  From there, I will schedule to have both her and Boo done at the same time.  I suspect that Boo will have to go in earlier because the vet wants to put him on IV fluids 24-48 hours before the procedure due to his condition.  *sigh*

It looks like it will be a rainy weekend.  Since today the weather was still reasonably nice, I went ahead and mowed the lawn.  It was rather over due as it hadn't been mowed in about 2 weeks.  I know.  I'm such a neglectful homeowner. :-p  I noticed a small crack in the brick near the faucet outside.  I think I will need to look for something to seal it up before winter. Actually, I should make a list of things I need to do before winter arrives.

So many things to do and so little time!

Home sick

I decided it was best to stay home today and do whatever work is needed from home.  I really didn't have a whole lot other than some emails and a couple of phone calls.  So overall, it was a quiet day.  I managed to get some nap time in during the afternoon.  

I feel a bit congested but not totally blocked up.  Not yet anyways,  but I'm sure it's coming up next on the cold menu.

I've been throwing everything I've got at this thing to make it go away faster.  I've been taking ColdFX, emergen-C and Tylenol for the headache.  I would say that the cold is making its way through at a more accelerated rate which has me believe that it should be gone by the end of the week.

In any case, let's see where this cold decides to go next.

And thanks for all the get well wishes. :)

*Sniffle*

I hate colds.  I especially hate the ones that sneak up on you.

*sniff*  *ah-CHOO!*

Did I mention that I hate colds?

Almost the weekend

So I finally got a call from the vet late yesterday about Boo's blood test and exam. His figures are about the same as it was last time, so he's basically stable. No change in meds and diet. However, his mouth needs help. Cleaning, extraction, etc. I know he's got some vicious cat breath happening. I'll probably look into booking an appointment to have this done in the near future.

I feel FAT! :-p After nearly 3 months of travel, diet on the road takes a toll. In any case, I'm trying to rectify the situation by getting back onto a more healthy diet. I've already signed up for the outdoor cardio classes. I am also going to sign up for a yoga class. I need to get back into shape.

Photography. Now that I have my D80 back (well, a new one anyway), I need to get back into taking pictures. I just haven't lately. I need to rehone what skills I had after I had taken that Camera Basics course over a year ago. I'll probably review a few things and techniques. After I feel more comfortable with that, I might look at possible getting a new lens, like a wide angle. I know it won't be cheap, but I don't think I'd get one this year.

I think there's a bunch of things I'd like to do. It's just a matter of getting myself organized now that I'm home again (and hopefully for a while at least). I'd like to organize some of the pictures I have using Aperture. I had bought a book on using Aperture a while ago but hadn't gotten around to actually reading it. I'd like to learn a bit more Japanese. It's an interesting language. I have the books to refresh myself and maybe advance a bit.

Baking. I haven't baked in a while. I might look into making some cookies or something in the near future. Again, this requires some planning and time. :-p

Cooking. I'm trying to get back into the habit of cooking dinner and not relying on any convenience foods or delivery. I still have 3 slices of Domino's pizza, which I might finish off tonight. Last night, I made a soup with noodles, shiitake mushrooms and fried fish balls. Okay, so the broth came from a box, but it works.

Anyway, gotta get back to finishing this report for the last project. Yay...

Random thoughts

It's about 4AM.  I went to be a little bit early tonight.  I guess I'm just getting used to sleeping in my own bed after being away for 3 weeks.  I guess having been gone for most of the summer it kind of added up.

The cats are home again.   I'm a little worried about Boo's blood test results.  The vet will call me with the results and recommendations.

I witnessed the dissolution of something that had been there for some time but had been disintegrating for a time now.  I guess things were just coming to a head.

I should go to Pushap for lunch today.  It's been almost a month since I went out for lunch with some friends at work.  The weather should be nice again today.  Warm.

Dunno what to expect in life any more.  I'll just keep going and see what happens.  Not totally floating along.  I still wonder if I will ever love again, or be loved.  But I guess that might be getting too deep here.  I'm not one to get too sentimental here.  Or rather, I don't like to get like this.  But hey, I'm human, right?  I guess I have gotten rather cynical.  Almost to the point of indifference.  Can someone save me?

Pics are up

Some of the photos I took in Buffalo and Niagara are up.  I wasn't right up front by the stage, so the lighting was a bit tricky.  I hate using high ISO settings as it can get a bit grainy.  I played around with it and finally settled on 800.  Still some graininess but not all that bad. 

Enjoy!

Buffalo and Niagara

Just a taste of what we saw Friday and Saturday...

Champions of Nothing (partial)

Sound check at Jackson-Triggs

Back on Home Soil

I finally got home a few hours ago after a long 7 hr drive from the Niagara region.  I actually left San Salvador Thursday morning.  I arrived in Buffalo that evening.  I went to see Matthew Good Friday night.  I spent Saturday in the Niagara region.  I tasted a lot of wine and probably bought as many bottles of it. :-)

It's nice to be home.  I need to reacquaint myself with my home.  I watered the tomato plants earlier this evening.  I picked a few that were ripe.  I threw in a load of laundry to wash.

I guess I'll do a bit of tidying up tomorrow.  Weekend is nearly over and it will be back to work Tuesday.

I'll try to post some pics on my Flickr by tomorrow.  Just too tired at the moment to really think much about it.

Last weekend in San Salvador

Okay. I've been very bad about posting anything for the last several days. I guess it's because I'm pretty beat after coming back from the customer site. Well, that and not really having anything too significant to say.

That said, I really didn't do much this weekend other than to relax and take it easy. One of the reasons is due to, well, certain things that happen on a regular basis. And I will leave it at that. :p

In a few more days, I will be able to get away from here. But I won't be heading home just yet. I'll be flying to Buffalo first. There, I will meet up with Melissa and JC. We're going to go see Matthew Good (yes, again) at Club Infinity. After that, we're going to swing by Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake and spend the night there before we trek back to Montreal. It should be fun. I have not been to Niagara in quite a long while.

Hmmm. I wonder how the batteries in my camera are doing....

Driving...

The roads. They snake around the city in some random way. They sometimes run high and steep up a hill. They sometimes wind their way back down.

Wary pedestrians trying to cross these roads. Never knowing if something will be coming around the bend.

Speeding along these roads. Passing storefronts. Storefronts with armed guards. Remember not to shoplift!

Passing by rough-hewn structures that pass for homes. Getting an occasional peek into a room lit by a flourescent light or a lone hanging bulb.

Stopped at a light. A man entertains by blowing flames from his mouth. Flames flying a few meters into the air. He wants no applause, just some monetary recognition.

Sweets for sale! Flowers for sale! Look! Laptop cases for sale! How about your windshield washed?

Pizza Hut. McDonald's. Mister Donut. Fast food corporate America has made its mark here. Cheap eats! Empty calories. Heart disease and obesity, here we come!

Welcome to Central America.

Daytime Fireworks?

Now, I know that I am in El Salvador. I know that El Salvador is probably not the safest places in the world. However, despite whatever statistics are thrown at me, it doesn't seem to bother me when I hear what sounded like fireworks throughout the day today. I mean, it wasn't constant or anything but every once in a while you'd hear a few here and then a few there. I think it started some time late in the morning. I kept hearing them sporadically throughout the day.

In any case, are they fireworks or gunshots or what are they? O_o

Weather in San Salvador

Okay. To give you an idea, this is what I have to deal with each day. However, most weekdays, I will be sitting in a windowless, super air-conditioned environment for a minimum of 8 hours. And depending on where I am situated in that room, I will most likely need to put on my fleece jacket, complete with company logo (yay, for free company swag!). But think of the stress placed on the body when going from a cold environment and out into a hot and steamy environment. Yeah, not so good. And I will be doing this for another 2 weeks.

So why am I writing this? I guess it was prompted by a post Matthew Good made today about the heat exhaustion he's been experiencing and the fact that the building he lives in is poorly designed when it comes to hot weather. I guess there's a certain amount of perspective to be taken when it comes to dealing with hot weather. I suppose that one could argue that the weather in Vancouver is fairly temperate and that there's no need to be able to open the windows more than a few inches. I just think that's rather silly. I'm sure some people would like to open their windows up just to get some fresh air in. I doubt the 4 inches Matt is able to open is barely enough to even give that on a nice day.

Tagged by Jess - Answering under duress

Six Quirks
(tagged by Jess)

1. I have a tendency of changing the subject. Usually something totally unrelated to what was being discussed.
2. My bed linens need to be in order. Even when I'm in bed!
3. I don't move much at all when I sleep.
4. I'm fairly neat and tidy when staying in a hotel room but my own room is very cluttered.
5. Can fall asleep during any meeting.
6. I think I can babble on and on about almost anything.

There! Happy now, Jess? ;-)

Where has the summer gone????

Needless to say, with the amount of traveling I have been doing for work this summer, I really haven't seen or experienced much of summer back home. Then again, according to some, I really haven't missed much of a summer in Montreal as it's been rather rainy this year. Oh well.

It's now mid-August. Today, I received in my inbox an email from Mountain Equipment Coop introducing their new products for Fall. "FALL?!?!?!" Ack! Summer is not even over yet (although it might as well be in Montreal) and they've already started to market Fall (and Winter) gear! Oy.

Before I left for this trip, I tried to do a little shopping. You'd figure that with summer more than half over there'd be plenty of summer sales. There were, but I think it's also a matter of timing. When I try to find these summer bargains I am left with sizes that are either too big or too small. It's always been like that. I guess that's why sometimes, if there is something I need, I don't really try to wait for sales. If I need something and the shop has it in stock and in my size then I would most likely purchase it. If it's a bit too expensive, then I might shop around for a more reasonably priced equivalent. I'm not *that* fussy about brands. Maybe that's why I like shopping at MEC sometimes. Their house brand stuff is pretty decent and reasonably priced.

Anyway.. I'm not sure what I will be doing the rest of the weekend. Our junior colleague (all of 23 years old) just got back from a night out with some of the local guys from the office. At 9:30AM! I was just starting to have some breakfast. Oh well.

I decided this morning that I would at least try to get some exercise. The gym here seems to be decently equipped. I used to treadmill for about a half hour. With my knees being the way they are, I only did a brisk walk and maybe a short jog in those 30 minutes. I guess because I hadn't had anything to eat yet, I felt a little woozy after getting off the treadmill. I will have to remember to have a little snack or something before I do that again. I might try the elliptical trainer they have next time.

Yeah, so like, it's been that exciting here. :-p At least it's sunny today as well. I might head out and lounge by the pool later.

It's about 10:45AM and the temp is already 28C.

San Salvador - Friday, 8:15AM and it's 21C (Humidex of 29C)

That's what I woke up to this morning. Although, this morning was a more sunny one. Most mornings here have started out being a bit cloudy and possibly rainy. However, today was nice and sunny.

It's been almost a week since I've arrived here in San Salvador. This first week seemed to have flown by rather quickly. I was eager to get the ball rolling for this project. On the last trip, we weren't able to really start our testing the first week we were there. I was determined to get as far ahead into the game as possible.

So far, we've managed to execute most of the test cases of two interfaces. There are a few other that need to be done, but we have to wait until next for that. That's alright. All of the test cases that we managed to do this week was pretty darn good progress.

Work aside, I haven't really done much else here yet. It's pretty much been get up, go to the office, head to the customer site, come back to the hotel and write up the daily report. By then I'm pretty wiped.

The hotel we're staying at is not bad. It's actually an older building (or not yet remodeled) that's managed by Radisson. We get to use the Radisson facilities, like the pool and gym. Breakfast is in the Radisson hotel restaurant. Overall, it's not bad. I kinda have a view of this big mountain/volcano here in San Salvador. I also have a wonderful lview of the parking lot back here. At least it's somewhat quiet. I can't complain too much. I've been in worse places.

Yeah, I know. This blog entry is kinda boring. I just don't feel too inspired at the moment to write anything more interesting than "Hey! I'm here in El Salvador and it doesn't feel any different than if I were at home". Except, I don't need to do much cleaning. :D

Meanwhile, my dear friend Melissa has written something much more meaningful than me. I'd give her a read if I were you. She's a great artist and a wonderful person. And I miss hanging out with her. In fact, I miss a lot of stuff when I'm on the road. There are some things you take for granted that you don't realize you'd miss until you've been away for a while.

Anyway... :-)

And Away We Go! (Again)

I'm off to San Salvador tomorrow morning. I'm almost done packing. I might be packing just a few more pieces of clothing than before. I realized at some point that I was getting tired of rotating through the same set of shirts for 3 weeks straight. I'm trying to make sure that I pack an appropriate amount of entertainment. This includes: a magazine, some DVDs, a book or two and the Nintendo DS. Gotta have some portable gaming some times.

After this is done, I am heading straight to Buffalo. I'm going to meet up with a few people there for a Matthew Good show. :) It should be good.

I'm just chillin' now before deciding to either finish packing up the odds and ends or just head off to bed.

Some of you do need help...

Step One:


Step Two:


Step Three:

Tuesday

Another day has come and gone. The skies are starting to get dark. The clouds are moving in. It looks like they are forecasting crappy weather for tomorrow. I and a few friends will be standing in wind-driven rain tomorrow evening at the Radiohead concert. I think it would suck if it got cancelled if the weather got really bad. But I guess we shall see.

The day went by pretty quickly. I went to get a chocolate-raspberry cake for someone's birthday in the office. It was quite good! I really needed that little sugar push in the afternoon. I was struggling to stay awake after lunch. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. I was mainly reviewing a document before the next trip. I'm leaving Sunday for El Salvador.

In any case, Tuesdays were never all that exciting.

Might have a coffee date Friday. I think. Dunno. I haven't said much about it here. I think I will leave it that way for now.

Monday

You know you're tired when you pack some fruit and yogurt into a bag and forget to bring with you to work. :p

No. I did not party all weekend. I didn't get pissed drunk Friday night even though my friends tried their best to get me totally trashed. At best, I had a bit of a headache and just wanted to lie down and sleep. I think that if I had finished that last pint of lime and lager I'd be one with the porcelain throne. I kinda know my limits. And if I feel I just can't drink anymore, then that's it. Otherwise, I had a nice time with some good friends celebrating my birthday. :)

Saturday, I had to go get my car which I left parked at work Friday. I then went to MEC where I missed a passing thunderstorm and torrential downpour. I think the rain washed my car some. I bought a few things then headed home. I was going to head over to Melissa's because we wanted to shop for a few things. But she was pretty tired and wanted to take it easy. I was pretty tired too and agreed we'd get together Sunday. I did, however, go over to my manageer's place for dinner. His wife had called earlier in the day to invite me over.

Sunday was alright. My ex's mom came over to pick up some mail her Mum sent. We chatted a bit. We hope to do some digging in the backyard in the early fall to plant some hostas that she got. It'd be nice to have something out back other than just grass. Afterwards, I managed to get a load of wash done before heading over to Melissa's. We walked over to LL Lozeau to shop for a replacement DSLR. In the process, she got herself a Canon 40D. I also picked up a new, bright red suitcase. I needed one that was slightly bigger than what I had for these trips I've been making. Afterwards, we went over to my place to have dinner and play with our cameras. It's nice to have a DSLR in my hands again. It's strange, but I like handling that kind of camera.

Today, I am a bit knackered. For some reason, I woke up a little after 3AM and had a hard time falling back asleep. I ended up feeding BS around 4 and tried to get back to sleep. I think I managed to sleep for another hour or so. I will need to pick up a few things after work and maybe call it an early night tonight.

August 1, 1968

On this date many moons ago, my mom brought me into this world. It's an awfully big world. I'm still trying to discover as much of it as I can.

Cheers! :-)