I am heading to Ontario tomorrow afternoon for 6 days. Should be a good time.
I am putting Zeus and Blondie into a kennel, or, as many of them are being called now, a pet resort.
I liked this comic – neither dog came home with a robe the last time…
Wow. That is a fair number of posts. I have been maintaining this BLOG since November 2009. That’s not too bad. There were stretches in there where I didn’t post for days or weeks (possibly more than a month) in a row. Maybe I didn’t have much to say.
I am trying to remember if I had internet access at home during that entire time. I may not have had it for a while in there, who the heck knows any more.
So, what do I have to report on my 500th posting? Not much really. I only decided to post because I knew it was #500. So there.
What’s on the horizon?
Well, I am returning to Ontario next week for a few days. I am looking forward to it. I have not been “home” in 5 months now, it will be good to see people and hit some of the places that I miss.
I am planning on lunch on Friday at my favourite Mexican place and then dinner @ the Mandarin. Nothing planned as yet for Saturday. Sunday I head to Toronto and my conference starts. I feel like I have posted this before, I am sure that I have.
Well, here’s to the next 500 posts. Come along for the ride.
OK, I will admit it. I am not used to Alberta weather as yet.
It is September 12 today – oh, by the way, happy birthday to my sister, JB, who had a birthday yesterday – I will not mention her age so that she has no reason to kill me. Back to my posting.
I had to turn the heat on today. I am working from home and the thermostat indicates that it is around 15C in the house. Hmmm… That is a bit cold I am thinking.
I have on socks and slipper like things on my feet and a sweatshirt and I am still cold.
So, I will say that this is the earliest that I have ever had to turn heat on. In thinking back, I am pretty sure that I still had the heat on low back at the beginning of July.
It is supposed to warm up later this week so I am sure that I will be turning it back off and likely will be turning it back off this afternoon, but for now, I am freezing.
I am sure that Zeus and Blondie are fine – they do wear full length fur coats after all, even though fur really isn’t fashionable any longer.
It does feel nice though – it is starting to warm up. 🙂
Today I participated in laser tag for the Calgary Corporate Challenge. Apparently, I suck asst laser tag. Oh well, I enjoyed it still.
I don’t believe that I once got a positive score which means that I was hit more often than I hit people. I’m not sure if I was a bad shot or just had bad luck…
Well, this it’s one competition that BDO will not win I don’t think, and not just because of me either.
A good way to spend a Sunday evening anyway.
I hate voice mail. I have hated voice mail for a while. When I am at work, I attempt to avoid leaving people voice mail messages. If I call someone and get their voice mail then I will hang-up and I will send them an email. If I call an office and ask for someone and they say they are out, would I like their voice mail, I say no thanks, I will send an email.
My cell phone has voice mail on it. It will record a maximum of 3 messages and will save them for 3 days. You get that for free. You can pay to upgrade if you want to be able to take more messages and save them for longer.
I called Telus yesterday and cancelled my voice mail. The rep on the line told me that my voice mail is included in my package, it’s free. I told him that I hate it – please remove it.
So, now, if someone calls me, my phone will ring for a LONG time, 10 rings I think it is, perhaps more and then it simply disconnects. Sounds good to me.
If I recognize the caller ID, I will call you back. If I don’t recognize the caller ID, chances are that I did not really want to talk to you anyway.
I have voice mail at work, of course. I try to get my calls at work anyway – they shouldn’t normally go to voice mail anyway. If I do get a message, I will listen to it and then I will get back to you.
So, now you are all aware of my love of voice mail. Call me, leave me a message. 🙂
I am not sure where August went, but September is here already. Essentially, summer is over. We do have a few more weeks of summer, officially, but most people consider the Labour Day weekend as the end of summer.
Being new to Alberta, I am not sure what to expect weather wise. Recently, it has been getting pretty cool at night, dropping down to 7C or so and then warming up to 20C or so – not bad at all.
This is an odd week at work. I was off on Monday, Labour Day. It is odd because you can shop and what not here unlike in Ontario. Today I was off on my flex day. Tomorrow is Wednesday and I will be working from home. I have tested everything and all is working well. I will give it a try and see how it goes.
So, I will only be in the office 2 days.
I went to the zoo this past weekend – had a good time. Most of the animals were pretty lazy, not too surprising. Other than that, the 4 days were pretty darn relaxing.
I am looking forward to returning to Ontario in a couple of weeks. It will be nice visiting friends and family and also meeting all of my co-workers. More to come on that, I am sure.
When I left Ontario, one of the items that I sold was my Keurig coffee maker. You know, it is one of the ones that uses the little single serve packs that they call K-Cups. I could have brought it with me, but I figured it was one less thing to pack and would bring in some coin to help with moving expenses.
I was planning on using a regular coffee maker and being “old fashioned”. So, once I got here I found a nice little single cup regular drip coffee maker. Yick.
I am not sure if it is my lack of talent to make that sort of coffee or just that it really isn’t that good, but, let me tell you, it’s terrible. So, on my way to work (back when I was driving to work), I’d stop at 7-11 and purchase a coffee – not a cheap option but whatever.
Anyway, I was in Best Buy and they made me purchase a new Keurig. Yes, they made me. They were on sale and they were on for a REALLY good price. So, I purchased one.
I have had some trouble locating some of the varieties that I like, but wow, is it ever good coffee. I guess it costs about 75 cents per cup which isn’t that bad. Better than buying it out and WAY better tasting too.
I am going to the zoo today with TC. We are going to Smitty’s for breakfast first, love their buffet. It is supposed to be a good day, high in the low 20s. The wonderful Calgary Transit system is doing track work – again – on a long weekend – on the tracks that I want to use. You’d think that other sections need to be worked on. Oh no… Should be a good day – I have not been to the zoo here since 1986 and I think that’s the last time I’ve been to a zoo at all.
For now, I am going to enjoy my early morning coffee and read the paper. Hope you enjoy your long weekend.
OK – this is more like it. I do have to work tomorrow, that’s nothing out of the ordinary – I work most Friday’s. I also have to work a full day, even though most of the staff will only have to work half of a day. The difference is that I am a National employee (we are special) and the Calgary employees aren’t. 🙂 Through some sort of deal, the Friday of a long weekend always means that the office is closed at noon, or is it 1. Not sure. Don’t really care, it doesn’t apply to me.
Anyway, back to my weekend.
I am off on Monday, as are most people – it’s Labour Day. I am also off on Tuesday – it is my flex day that I missed from this week because SH was off of work and I didn’t want to leave the office with no IT staff. Now, I am sure that they would have been able to handle it, but who knows. So, that’s a 4 day weekend – not a bad deal.
I work from home on Wednesday – I hope that all goes well this time around.
I am still planning on hitting the zoo this weekend. Just have to confirm plans. Nothing planned for Sunday. Might hit the Stamps game on Labour Day – gotta see.
Anyway, enjoy your long weekend. Welcome September.
Not a lot really… Same old.
Working, not working. That describes the typical day, doesn’t it?
It is going to be a busy one at work this week as my co-worker is off on vacation. I like that, the days zip on by. This is another one of those 5 day work weeks – that would be two in a row. How am I ever going to handle that?
Tomorrow is Wednesday but seeing as I am working, as I said, by myself, I have to go into the office instead of working from home. I have worked the kinks out of my connection so next time it should be a little more productive being here. I hope that the “soft phone” will work – I am sure it will.
I think I am going to the Calgary Zoo on Saturday with my “little brother”. Let’s see – seeing as I don’t refer to people by name and I don’t want to refer to him as “little brother”, I guess I will stick with my convention and use his initials, TC. I can’t use T as that, of course, represents someone else. Anyway, TC and I are supposed to go to the zoo – his idea but it’s a good one. I have not been since I was in Calgary back in 1986. Wow – that’s a while ago… This coming weekend is an extra long weekend for me as well. I have Monday off for Labour Day and then I am off on Tuesday as well to make up for yesterday. You know, the flex schedule – well, I decided to go in yesterday and I moved the flex day to next week – works for me.
Speaking of flex days, I hope that they extend the program into the Fall, not sure if they will or not.
I am having Rent-A-Centre pick up the washer and dryer today – they were supposed to be here on Saturday and they didn’t show. Doesn’t surprise me – they seem to be a fairly disorganized business. I was going to outright purchase the washer and dryer – they were a pretty good price – I didn’t. So, now that I have no roommates, I can’t see paying for them when I can use the laundromat which is less than 30 seconds outside of my back door.
Well, that’s it for my update. What an exciting one that was as well. I hope to post some pictures of my zoo visit on the weekend.
… Come back, 1 year.
Well, maybe not. The final option that I had for paying for my Jeep fell through although I can say that I really didn’t expect it to work out anyway.
If I had the option of withdrawing funds from my LIRA (locked in retirement account I believe that stands for), I am sure that the banker that I was dealing with in Ontario would have let me know about it – she was on her game. She also knew at the time that I was unemployed and might need a source of income.
Apparently, the rules do vary from province to province. If I had earned the income in Alberta, I could likely withdraw some now but since it was earned in Ontario, I have to wait until I am 55. Well, I am getting older but 55 is still 14 years away.
So, I can’t pay for a new engine for the Jeep. Sort of puts me back at square one.
I might win an arbitration case, but, I need to keep paying for the Jeep between now and then – that could take upwards of a year. If, after that time I lose, then I am right where I am today except that I have continued to pay for something that I can’t use, plus, it really isn’t good for a vehicle to sit, idle, for that long.
I am seeking some advice tomorrow to see what my real world options are.
I am the type of a person that I typically roll with the punches so it doesn’t cause me much concern really. I guess I am lucky that way. Some people wouldn’t be able to sleep with this hanging over their heads – that’s not me.
Oh well, I guess I will adjust to life without my own vehicle. Walking and biking will be good for me and when I go to the store, etc., I am sure that the dogs will enjoy the walk as well. Now, if winter will cooperate and not be too cold?
Kevin's Ramblings... 