Another day in Saskatchewan…

Posted on November 16, 2016 by kdarcy21

My day in Regina was fairly smooth, I suppose, or at least I made it appear fairly smooth.  There were some issues with the laptops and the accounts that the new staff were using, I was able to work around those and get the users logged in.  We did a training session on basics, they were taking notes so that is good.  There is a lot to learn when you come to a new firm.

The 5 of us went to lunch at a pub close to the BDO office.  The current FRS Manager paid for everyone’s lunch, thanks.  I had a great Caesar salad with blackened chicken and a double mousse for dessert.  I didn’t get out of the office until after 5pm.

There was some confusion as to where I would be going next.  Originally, I was supposed to stay the night in Prince Alberta, Saskatchewan and go to that office on Wednesday.  Another tech was in Saskatoon and he said that the Prince Albert user (just one person) was there and would be there on Wednesday as well.  So, no need to go to Prince Albert.  I cancelled my hotel reservation in Prince Albert for Wednesday and Thursday night and instead am staying in Saskatoon until Thursday morning.  I then have to travel to Prince Albert to ensure all is well.  I am hoping to get out of Prince Albert around 10am on Thursday.  It will still make for a long day, to be sure.

Last night driving from Regina, I had visions of deer or worse yet a moose coming across the highway.  Thankfully, didn’t see any.  I didn’t see any gas stations coming out of Regina, so I drove about 60km north before coming to an Esso on the side of the highway, gas was 86 cents per litre, so not too bad at all.  I met my co-worker and we went to an up-scale(ish) restaurant that the hotel recommended.  We started with a side of chicken wings and I had a bacon burger and my companion had a steak – good food all around.

Blondie and Hera are in boarding until Thursday afternoon.  I am hoping that they are enjoying themselves.  It looks like a good place, although I am sure they don’t really like the change to their routine, I know how they feel.  It will be nice to be back in Calgary for sure.

Only one more full week before I move.  I will now be able to use some lieu time from this week to take Wednesday, November 30 off to prepare for my move.  I am already off the 1st and 2nd and then have the weekend to settle in.  I am sure it will be here before I know it.

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Arrived in Regina

Posted on November 14, 2016 by kdarcy21

I left Calgary this morning, right on schedule, 6:30am and arrived in Regina at 3:10pm (Central Time), so just over a 7.5 hour drive.  Only made 1 stop, for gas, right at the Alberta/Saskatchewan border.

The hotel is nice.  Check-in was a breeze.  My work covers it as opposed to be having to be reimbursed.  Staying at the Holiday Inn Suites.

The dogs are safe at Treetops Pet Resort.  I dropped them off yesterday morning.  As I was unloading their food and toys, I was explaining to the “keeper” about Hera’s medication and discovered, her medication was still at home.

So, after a baseball meeting and a nap, I drove BACK to the pet resort, 106 km return, with her medication.  Although the vet and I are reducing her medication monthly, I didn’t want her to be 4 days with no pills.  What a good dog dad I am, eh?

Tomorrow is a work day – training in Regina.  I am planning on stopping in Saskatoon on my way to Prince Alberta to have dinner with a co-worker who’s in Saskatoon.  That will be a good end to the day.

I will be in Saskatoon two nights and head back to Calgary Thursday morning.

It will be a whirlwind trip for sure, nearly 2000 km in total.  Good thing I like driving.

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Roads trips…

Posted on November 11, 2016 by kdarcy21

At the beginning of this week, I had to go to Banff, Alberta to provide support for a work conference.  Blondie and Hera got to spend the night in Treetops Pet Resort, near Cochrane.  My co-worker and I got to spend the night at the Banff Centre.  Food was amazing, as always.  There were few technical issues.

I picked up the dogs on my way home Tuesday afternoon.  They were happy to see me, it looked like they had a good time.  Tuesday evening, they slept like I have never seen before.  Around 7:30pm, when I wanted to give Hera here pills, I actually had to shake her lightly to wake her up.  How do you sneak up on a dog?  I have never been able to do that before and this time, I was not trying.

I have another, longer, road trip this coming week.  I am heading to the exotic destination of Saskatchewan, Regina and Prince Albert, to be exact.  It will be a lot of driving and a few nights in a hotel.  Shouldn’t be too difficult.  I head out Monday morning at first light, or just before first light, I guess.  The dogs will be at Treetops Pet Resort again, this time for 4 nights.

When I get back, I will only have one full week before I move.  I am looking forward to it.

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New place? Yes.

Posted on November 2, 2016 by kdarcy21

Shortly after posting yesterday, I received a text message from my former landlady that she had just gotten off of the phone with the guy who’s renting his house out.  She gave me a good reference.  I paid my rent on time, every time for 2 years and I left it clean and no damage.  Shortly after, I received an email from the new landlord asking if I was still interested in signing the lease.

Yes, indeed I am.

I have sort of been looking for a bungalow since moving to Calgary.  I don’t mind stairs, but it is nice not having to navigate a large number of them.  I also don’t like carpets – carpeting and dogs don’t mix well, especially when one of the dogs is a Yellow Lab and she sheds as her primary profession.  This new place has all 1950’s era hardwood and it is in great condition.  It has 3 bedrooms, galley style kitchen and a great mud/laundry room with custom cabinets on all of the walls for a massive amount of storage.  One bathroom, all one person needs and a giant fenced in yard.  All in all, it will be a perfect fit for myself and the dogs.

I move in sometime this month, not sure of the exact date as yet.  Looking forward to getting there, the moving part of it is a bit of a pain but that’s only a day.  Wish me luck.

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New place – we will see…

Posted on November 1, 2016 by kdarcy21

I am currently living in a great townhouse in the north-west part of Calgary, I’ve been here nearly a year.  It is a large townhouse, 6 levels actually, including the basement, so it has a lot of stairs.  It has a tiny backyard though – those two things are the only issues and they are, currently, minor.

Ideally, I’d love to have a bungalow with a backyard.  So, I looked around and saw one advertised, not far from where I currently live.  I took a look at the pictures online and they were great.  I figured it wouldn’t be as good when I toured, but I was wrong – it was excellent.

Great fenced in yard, garage and extra parking.  Inside, hardwood floors throughout, no carpets, no stairs.  Three bedrooms, a great size.

So, I applied to lease it on Saturday.  I confirmed with the landlord that he received my email but, thus far, have not heard anything – either positive or negative.  I guess he’s in no rush to rent it, or something.

I am not a particularly patience person really.  I like to have an answer quickly.  I will wait until tomorrow after work and if I have not heard back yet, I will email again.  My lease in this townhouse expires at the end of November, but if I am not going to renew, I’d like to give him some notice, it is only fair, he’s been great with me.

Guess I will wait a bit longer…

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My monthly update…

Posted on October 24, 2016 by kdarcy21

It would appear that my blog entries are done about monthly now.  I am OK with that.  Hope you are too.

So, what’s happened the last month?  Not a heck of a lot.  The wildcard round of baseball playoffs and the divisional series have finished as have the championships – the Cubs will face the Indians in the World Series, should be a good one.  Most of the evenings in October have been spent watching baseball.  I have discovered though, that bringing my dogs to the dog park overrides watching playoff baseball.  Who knew?

We had the AGM for Babe Ruth last night.  I am no longer on the Executive as the Secretary.  I will stay on the Board as the uniform guy so that will keep me involved.

At home, I have finally moved my office from the basement to the 4th level, in the spare bedroom.  The light is MUCH better.  Temperature is a bit better as well.  I think a small space heather is still a good idea though so I will be purchasing one.

I am still remotely looking for a new place.  It needs to be perfect though.  1) bungalow with a backyard 2) no or very limited carpeting 3) updated recently – not in the 70’s.  Not a huge wish list but I have not found anything yet.  This place is fine, the backyard is just tiny and there are a lot of levels, which at present doesn’t cause issues, but, eventually the dogs will be older (as will I) and we might have trouble with the amount of stairs.  So, the search continues.

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Back home – time to relax…

Posted on September 23, 2016 by kdarcy21

The trip back home to Calgary from the IT Conference was pretty routine.  We left Collingwood at around 3:30 and got to Toronto’s Pearson airport about 2 hours later.  Security was a breeze to pass though, very quick.  A group of us heading to various points in Western Canada had dinner together which was nice.

The flight was uneventful which, I guess, is how we want all flights to be.  I watched The Force Awakens for kill some time – the other movie choices didn’t appeal to me.

A friend of mine picked me up at the airport and we stopped for a quick bite to eat.  I was up early, 4am, my body of course thinking it was 6am.  I will get back on schedule this weekend, I hope.

I picked up Blondie and Hera at 8am and I had two very happy dogs.  Hera never whines and she was crying in her excitement.  I got quite a few doggy kisses and now the dogs are napping – I am sure the week was tiring for them.

So, now I have a long weekend to relax and back to work on Monday.  Enjoy your weekend.

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Blue Mountain Conference

Posted on September 22, 2016 by kdarcy21

We had our IT Conference this week in Collingwood, Ontario at Blue Mountain.  I took the red eye flight from Calgary, early Sunday morning and arrived in Toronto shortly before 7AM Sunday morning.

Met my new boss for lunch downtown, went to Mandarin and the food was, as always, amazing.  I spent the afternoon and had dinner with my Aunt, went to Red Lobster for Endless Shrimp.  Two buffets in one day.  Well, it started a week of eating WAY too much food.

The conference started Monday evening at Blue Mountain.  Eating, drinking and seminars filled the days.  It wasn’t a bad conference, a little boring though and not as good as 3 years ago.

I had to assist covering our help desk on Wednesday morning and had a tough of a hangover.  Not a lot of fun and not something that I am really used to anymore.

Today is the last day of the conference, it ends around 2:30/3:00 and then back to Pearson and off to Calgary.  I get back in around 10:45PM, Mountain Time and pick up my dogs first thing tomorrow morning.

All in all, a good week.  Working in a National company where we don’t see co-workers, the Conference is great for catching up.  Hopefully we won’t have to wait three years to get together again.

Thanks Ontario, it was a good week.  Back home now to Alberta.

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My monthly update?

Posted on September 15, 2016 by kdarcy21

There have been a fair number of changes over the last month since my last update.

I decided, after a lot of thought and chat with other parties, that I would not be continuing as the Club Manager for the Babe Ruth Rockies.  There were a lot of reasons for me to step down and I could only think of a few to continue.  I am going to remain on the Board of Directors so I will still be involved.  I may return to umpiring, I have not decided as yet.  I wanted to give the league plenty of notice so that they would be able to fill the role.  It is likely tough to find a non-parent willing to do this job.

My new job at work is keeping me very busy.  I am enjoying it.  I still get to work from home which is awesome.  No commute – no traffic, no people on the bus and train and a big savings since I don’t have to put out $100 a month on transit.

We have a work conference coming up, next week actually.  I have my regular dog sitter looking after Blondie and Hera.  It has been a year since they’ve seen her, Hera is much larger than she was, much sweeter as well though.  I know they are taken good care of when I am gone.

I am flying out on Sunday morning, having lunch in Toronto and dinner with my Aunt and then heading to the conference on Monday in Collingwood.  Should be a good week.  There have been a LOT of staff changes at works so it will be good to meet new people.

Also on the work front, I may be making an overseas trip in the coming months.  This is yet to be confirmed but it looks like I will be going to Mauritius in the middle of the Indian ocean.  I may find our more about this next week at the conference – guess I will see.  It would be an experience of a lifetime for sure.

 

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Keeping busy…

Posted on August 12, 2016 by kdarcy21

Well, it is almost the middle of August, so, what’s been happening?

Well, not a lot really.  I turned 45 this week.  It doesn’t seem much different, or any different really than when I was 30 or so.  I worked on my birthday, didn’t ask for the day off, why bother, work was busy, the day zoomed by.  Went out for dinner to Montana’s, good food, even had chocolate cake for dessert.  Thanks SS for dinner.

Baseball is done.  The Indians ended up winning the AAA Championship for Babe Ruth, clobbering the Angels two games straight.  In AA, the Giants cleaned up and I was asked to give out medallions for the A Championship and saw the Orioles blow away their competition.  All in all, some good ball.

I won’t be coach Fall Ball this year by the looks of it.  I may assist if I am around but I didn’t want to commit if I am going to be away.  More on possibly going away later.

Work has been busy, very busy actually.  The days go by quickly which is nice.  No boredom here.

It is the weekend, well, will be in a few hours.  Enjoy yours.

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