I can breathe again!

Okay, so I took my brother's suggestion and got some Afrin. Once I got home I gave it a few squirts. A few minutes later, I was able to breathe again! Woohoo!!!

I also re-stocked on some Sudafed and Halls. I am still taking the Cold FX and emergen-C. I think I'm pretty well doped up to fight off this cold. I hate taking cough syrup because it seems that I have this mild reaction to whatever it is they put into cough syrup. It's something I finally figured out when I was a teenager.

I left work early because I just could not concentrate with the congestion. Plus, I figure I could use some extra rest to get this cold to go away soon. So after stopping by the pharmacy for the goods, I got home, got a bite to eat, then lounged/dozed a bit on the chair. I don't think I really napped for too long. On top of that, I was also trying to read my TCP/IP Protocol book. I think I managed to get through a few pages. :-D

Anyway, I'm just sort of relaxing this evening. I should probably try to read some more, but I know I should try to hit the hay earlier tonight. I've got a phone interview tomorrow evening, so I should try to get some rest tonight. I hope the cough goes away somewhat.

In the meantime, I am just listening to some random tracks from my iTunes... Currently playing, Goodbye Girl by Squeeze. :-)

*sniffle* *coughcough*

Well, it seems that I had caught a cold. :-p

Thursday after work, I started to sneeze a lot. Uh-oh. My officemate had been sneezing a lot as well. But then again, a bug has been going around work . However, I caught it, I was determined to get rid of it! I was planning a small party Saturday! So I took a dose of emergen-C.

Friday, I started to sniffle more. Noooo!!! Bad cold! Go away, cold! Begone! I took at least 3 packets of emergen-C during the course of the day. When I got home, I was really starting to feel congested. I took a Sudafed for the congestion and some Tylenol for the accompanying headache. Later in the evening I made a mug of Ho Yan Hor (some sort of Chinese herbal tea). And more emergen-C!

Depending on what shape I was in when I woke up on Saturday that would determine if the party was on or not. I woke up feeling fine but still sniffly. The party was one! So I did some shopping in the morning to buy food and stuff for the party. I picked up a bottle of Cold FX that someone told me about. I head heard about this stuff, but wasn't sure. Again, I was dosing myself with the emergen-C, Sudafed and Tylenol. Now, I was taking some Cold FX. I was throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this cold.

The party went pretty well. I did my best to wash my hands frequently before handling stuff. I really did not want my guests to catch my cold! One guest did sort of start to sniffle before he left. I hope I didn't give it to him! :-o

This morning, I woke up with a bit of a cough. But eventually, the gunkiness of the cough went away, but I still had a slight cough. Today I continue the dosing of the Cold FX, emergen-C and Sudafed. Uh-oh... I'm down to my last Sudafed. I better check the cupboards in case there's another package lying around. :-o

In other news, Finster decided to go hypoglycemic. :-p Well, it might have partially been my fault as well. I didn't give him any insulin at all yesterday because of all the running around I did. This morning, around 9AM, I gave him his 5 units. At about 3:30PM, while he was curled up in the butterfly chair, he started to pee!! Omygosh! When he stopped I picked him up and brought him to the bathroom to clean him up. He was not responding in the way of standing. he just laid there. I brought out the glucometer and checked his blood sugar level. He was down to 1.1!! Not very good. I quickly made a sugar water solution and started to dab that around his mouth and gums. After a few minutes of this, he started to respond better. He still couldn't quite stand up (a bit wobbly), but he was coming around. About an hour later he was able to stand up and walk over to the water dish. Whew! I think I will need to monitor his blood sugar levels for a while in case he's on another honeymoon. I'm also wondering if it isn't because he's lost a bit of weight. When he was at the vet last week, he weighed in at 12.75 pounds. This may be having an impact on his diabetes. We'll see.

So I guess that was pretty much the excitement for today, other than the crappy weather outside...

(O_o)

Ooog! It's been a sort of rough week.

Monday was relatively slow. That was OK.

Tuesday was a bit more busy. I had to take care of so many little things that it added up to a full day. On top ot that, I had planned to meet up with my cousin who was in town for for work. Just as I was about to leave the office, I get a call. Some software didn't transfer properly. It was corrupted. I said I was heading out for an appointment. They said they would try a few other things. If that didn't work, then they would give me a buzz. Sure enough, I got a call from them. I said to give me about an hour and then I'd head back to the office. After having a beer and a light supper with my cousin, I made my way back to the office. I started a file transfer that turned out to be very painstakingly slow! Ugh! The transfer started a little after 9PM. It took almost 2 hours to transfer 124Mb! After it was confirmed the file was okay, I went straight home and was in bed by midnight.

This morning, I felt quite tired. I took my time getting into the office this morning. I think I was operating on auto-pilot most of the day. :-p Now I am finally home. I did take a short nap. Now some supper.

Another fun day awaits tomorrow...

When no one is around...

Do you:

• Drink milk straight from the container
• Burp as loudly as you can
• Say out loud your thoughts
• Dance or sing very badly to your favorite songs
• Use up all the hot water
• Walk around in your PJs all weekend
• Eat very sloppily (unless you already do this)
  

Okay, so I don't necessarily do all the above (and I won't say which of them I do either!). But what do you do at home when no one is around?

Of rain, cats and other things

Rain, rain go away, come again another day! That was the theme for Thursday.

So Thursday evening I went out with a couple of friends for sushi. We went to Kanda Sushi bar close to Concordia. For $20, it's pretty much all you can eat sushi. All I can say is that we got our money's worth. After that sushi binge fest, we went over to Hurley's for a pint. V mentioned it was her birthday Monday so we ordered her a Bailey's cheesecake to celebrate! I had a pint and a half and we all listened to the trio performing on stage. They did some Pogue covers. Not bad and very entertaining. :)

Got home around 11:30PM to find a small disaster. Someone had left a mess in the bathroom and the kitchen. After cleaning all of that up, I found that Finster was not behaving normally. After checking him out and observing him, it seems that he wasn't seeing very well. This was not good. :(

Friday morning, I see that Finster had not moved from his spot over night. As a result, he pee'd where he lay. :-p But since I was up and had the lights on, he was able to get up and go about his business. I looked more closely at his eyes. They seem to react to the bright light. I suspect that he was having problems with seeing in the dark. In any case, I called the vet that morning for an appointment.

Of course, it decided that it was going to piss rain that afternoon. I took Finster to the vet after work. The vet pretty much confirmed what I had observed. He thinks that there might be some damage to the retina. This could have been as a result of a hypo episode or something. He said there is the option of having an opthomalogist check him out, but he and I agree that at Finster's advanced age (~15 yrs), it's not worth plunking down that kind of coin just to have tests done. So, hopeing for the bext, he thinks that if it's temporary, then things will heal itself in a couple of weeks.

Later that evening, I noticed that Finster was actually starting to see better in low light. I checked out his pupils and they seem to be opening up more in low light than they were before. This is a very good sign. Today, he seems to be back to his normal self. :-)

However, it seems that Bluesh*t may have gotten a cold or something. Just as Finster was getting better, BS starts to cough a rather nasty sounding cough. It sounds like a phlegmy type of hacking cough, but nothing comes up. I'm going to have to keep an eye on him to see if it improves or gets worse. :-p *sigh* Life with cats.

Yesterday, went out and caught a movie with some friends. We saw Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles starring Ken Takakura. It was a somewhat emotional movie. I enjoyed it. After the movie we went to Bombay Palace for dinner. We went for a la carte instead of the buffet. The food was a bit slow to arrive but when it did it was quite good. :)

Today, a Sunday to catch up on somethings. I'm planning a small party next week, so I figure I should get a head start on the cleaning up. I can't believe how much clutter had accumulated over the past week since I got back! Oh well...

The Saga Continues...

Sleep is still somewhat erratic. I might fall asleep right away, I might not. I guess it's the luck of the draw that evening. Today, I had a brief half hour nap. It probably would have gone on if some d*mn telemarketers hadn't called. I guess that was a good thing in itself, waking me up before I slept the rest of the evening away and then be screwed the rest of the night.

I didn't have anything too heavy for supper tonight. The tummy seems slightly unsettled today. I hope I haven't caught a bug or something! That would ruin the weekend for any real rest and relaxation. :-p

it's about 9:30PM right now. I'm starting to nod off. In fact, I have been nodding off since this afternoon. It's requiring a lot of effort now to stay awake. I think it's late enough now that it's okay for me to go to sleep. I think I will abide by my eyelids demand to be closed.

|-)

Jet Lag - Part II

Yesterday was a bit of a disaster in that I hit the proverbial wall yesterday after lunch. Boy did I feel really out of it. I had to struggle to stay awake long enough to leave work around 3PM (got in around 6:30AM). I bumped into a few people on the way out, so in reality I only got out around 3:20. When I got home, I really had to work hard to stay awake. I chatted with people. I tried listening to some music. I tried to read up on TCP/IP protocols. I did my best to keep myself distracted.

Around 5:00, the couch was calling to me. A small nap couldn't hurt! So down I went. Because I was so afraid of really falling asleep, I only manage to nap for about half an hour, which is what I was hoping for anyway. This was just enough to keep me going the rest of the evening.

I managed to cook myself a decent dinner of beef with broccoli and rice. Afterwards, I stayed up until about 11. It took me a while to fall asleep, but I think I managed to by about 1AM. I think I was pretty much out cold until about 5:15AM. I don't even remember turning off the alarm at 5:00, but I must have. It was one of those dreamless sleeps. I think the body just wanted to recover somehow.

Considering that I am trying to adjust from the 13 hour time difference, it will take a few days to come back to this time zone. Ugh! :-p I guess I just need to bolster myself for the day with a few hits of espresso in the morning.

Jet Lag

Oog! I really hate jetlag. I tried to be good and not nap during the day Sunday. Okay, so I did only wake up around 10:30AM...

So here I am at about 4:22AM wide awake! I might as well sort of "get up" at this point. The big challenge for today? Staying awake at work. I hope they're not going to be too demanding of me for a few days. :-p

Hmm.. Bowl of cereal...

Back Home

Well, after getting awoken by an earthquake and staying up for over 24 hours, I am finally home. I got back around 9:45PM. Not bad at all!

Today is sort of a clean-up/recovery day. I picked up a few things from the supermarket. A few loads of laundry is getting done. Rather mundane, but it gives a sense of normalcy to my first day back home.

The cats are none the worse for wear. There's the usual "where have you been" meowing when I got home. I think BS was just happy there was a warm body he could curl up next to/on top of. Yes, it's a bit cooler here since I left. Brrr! It seems that the cooler weather has arrived a bit earlier than expected. :-p

On Hiatus

Thishttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif blog is put on hold while I am in Japan. For more information, please check this page.

Thank you for stopping by. :)

The Hip - follow-up

Uhmm, I sort of forgot to mention that I have no idea who will go to the show with me. This could open the door to various scenarios. The show is over a month away. I've got time to find someone. :-)

The Hip

So, while checking my emails, I see one from one of the radio stations. It's an offer to purchase tickets for the Tragically Hip show at the Metropolis before they go on sale to the public this Friday. So what do I do? I went ahead and bought a pair of tickets...

Countdown

So I've got 3 more days of work before I am on that plane to Tokyo! I'm looking forward to a much needed vacation! It has been one long summer this year. This will be my first real break since the trip to London in March.

I'll be staying for the most part with a friend in Tokyo. We'll both head off to Kyoto for a weekend to check out the sights there. And before you start thinking it, my friend is just a friend. He's a really cool guy who's given me a lot of help lately. I owe him a lot. :-) Thanks, bud!

I just need to focus on getting a few things done this week. I have to make sure that some things are covered in case something pops up while I am away. I will leave an email address to my team leader in the event they need a question answered that no one else has the answer for. I don't really think that will happen, but you never know. I think I will have a mobile while I am in Japan, but I don't think I will make it available to the folks at work. I will probably give it to my bro in case of emergency.

So that's about it for now. I won't say much else for the time being until I know what else is happening. :-)

Fall is Here!

Yes, it seems that what summer we had this year is now gone. The weather started out a bit warm and muggy and breezy. As the day wore on, the winds picked up and the skies started to clear. Now the clouds are moving back in and the temps are starting to fall. The geese know that it's time to go.

While I was waiting for the rice for dinner to finish cooking, I took a peek outside. And what did I spy? I spied me a rainbow! I quickly grabbed my camera and took this shot. You can see what I mean about the bad weather clouds moving in...





For dinner, I made fried rice. I hadn't made some in a while and this was a good way to start cleaning out the fridge of some perishables before I left on Friday. This fried rice is made with rice (of course), chinese sausage, half a red pepper, one small onion, 2 scallions, one carrot and 2 eggs scrambled. I season it simply with some ground black pepper, oyster sauce and sriracha chili sauce for an extra kick. :-) Yummmm!

"Hola, IT Helpdesk. May I help you?"

There has got to be limits with how outsourced services are being handled. Where I work, they have outsourced IS/IT services. This means that what support we use to rely on local personnel for is now handled by a third party. For any on-site problems, there are some people on-site to handle such cases. However, if we want to report a problem, we have to call this one number that takes us to a central "help desk".

Now, originally, the help desk was located somewhere in Ottawa. If we called outside their normal operating hours, then we would get routed to the help desk in Europe somewhere. Recently, they've announced that the call center will be Costa Rica! What the f*??

Anyway, either way, if we have a problem with the printer here, we call Costa Rica, who in turns calls a technician here on-site. Go figure...

Catch Up

Okay, so there hasn't really been anything earth shattering to write about since last week's tragic events. There's still stuff in the paper about the aftermath. Essentially, it's having to pick up the pieces and moving on. It will be difficult for some. Lessons will need to be learned from all this. The federal government will really need to think long and hard about their idea to scrap the gun registry.

Anyway...

The weekend was not bad. The weather cooperated. I went to Hudson in the morning. It was quite foggy but it burned off during the course of the morning. I got my keys back. I hung out. I bought some treats. In the afternoon, I took a nap. Rather boring and unexciting.

Sunday was not so bad. Some errands in the morning. The Hash out in Rigaud in the afternoon. The sun came out. I think I got more color. Came home pretty tired. Shoulda went to bed earlier. :-p

Today being Monday? Well, what can I say?

In other news, my buddy W is really doing a lot for me! I can use his place as a base of operations for when I get to Tokyo. He might even have a spare keitai for while I am there. What a Bear! I will probably owe him my right arm when all of this is said and done. We'll see how things go. I really hope something good comes of all this!

Aftermath

The gunman was been "neutralized" by police. A first year student was killed. Two other shooting victims fighting for the lives in hospital. These things make you wonder what exactly is going on in the gunman's mind. What warped sense of logic or emotions was going around and around in his mind. Why was no one close to him able to see that something might be wrong? Some questions may never be answered.

***

Today has been a somewhat "blah" day. Maybe it was the weather. Maybe it was yesterday's events. In any case, I need some relief from this. I need happy music! I need cheerful banter!

I think I will go buy some cannolis tomorrow. It will be a treat! I haven't been by the pastry shop in a long while. Good stuff there! Yummm..

A Sad, Sad Day

Well, in case you haven't already heard, there has been a shooting at Dawson College. This is the 3rd time that such a a violent incident has occurred in the city of Montreal.

1989 - 14 women were killed by Marc Lepine at Ecole Polytechnique
1992 - Valery Fabrikant shot and killed 4 members of the faculty at Concordia University
2006 - At least one fatality in the shooting at Dawson College

Just what is this world coming to?

Mystery Package Solved

It's the replacement battery for the 12" iBook. Now, to actually get it. DHL made another attempt to delivery Friday. Looks like they will try again Monday even though I had called to say I would go try to pick it up. Whatever...

Looks like a really nice day today. A bit on the cool side, but not too nippy. I've got a coffee date later. Hmmm, wonder how that will go...

Mystery Package

Hmmm.. Came home a bit late today and found a doorknocker from DHL. I really don't remember ordering anything recenty. The Mac Pro had already arrived via a different courrier. What could it be?

Minor correction: I did not bruise my ass-cheek. It was more like my upper thigh that was slightly bruised by my fall. :-p