Kevin's Ramblings…

Why is it that dogs get to stay in pampered Pet Resorts while I get to stay in a hotel? It isn’t a resort, not at all. It isn’t fair, is it? Well, they do seem to like it there.

While driving to the pet resort which is south-east of Calgary, just south of highway 22x, as I turn off the highway, Blondie starts what I would describe as her happy dance. Zeus, being much more dignified, doesn’t dance.

I am happy that the dogs pull me to get into the pet resort as opposed to me puling them. That’s a good sign, I think they enjoy the change of pace, or something. Maybe they get more attention, I am not sure.

Anyway, if you are in the Calgary area and have dogs and need boarding, I’d recommend Country Club Pet Resort, so would Zeus and Blondie.

A few months ago, I saw a commercial for Clash of Clans. I thought it looked like a “cute” game but had no plans on downloading it. I saw a few more ads (they are actually quite good, not much resemblance to the real game though) and also saw an online ad, in Facebook I think, so I decided to give it a try.

I have an iPad Mini so on it went. It started out slowly enough but after a few months and developing my village into a fairly powerful one, I will admit that I am quite addicted to it. Now, I don’t play it while working but during the winter evenings, I tend to hibernate and it is a great time waster, especially while watching tv or something.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, you are the Chief of a clan. Your village starts out very small and rather defenceless. You build up the various buildings, build new ones, walls to protect your village, cannon, mortars, archer towers and other “medieval” implements. You are able to train various warriors to fight your battles and upgrade them over time. And talk about time that it takes for upgrades, you really need some patience to play this game.

As you successfully raid other villages, you gain trophies. After you join a Clan, you can engage in a Clan War with up to other 49 clan mates. Battles last a day and the Clan with the most wins at the end of the battle gets extra gold and elixir – both used for upgrades. The cycle continues. You win wars, you upgrade, get more powerful and keep going.

It is a lot of fun. Not a heck of a lot of strategy really, a little but not the primary focus. I’d say pretty well anyone teens and up would enjoy it.

Anyway, I am sure at some point I will bore of it, but for now, it’s war time.

So, back to work again today, you know, it’s one of those Monday to Friday things. It was insane again, it seems like it is a new theme. I don’t know if this is the new normal or not, I sort of hope not though.

Other than work, I pretty much hibernate in the winter. Now that I work at home, I might not even really go too far from home most days. I think I am turning into a hermit. What the heck…

Indoor baseball evaluations start in about a month. I am not sure how many players will we have to draft, could be 8-10 though. That would mean an almost entirely new AA team. Could be an interesting year.

Last night when I posted, Canada was playing Russia for the Gold medal in a junior hockey. It was a hell of a game. I had complained that the tournament was a bit boring, last nights game erased that impression. Canada, as most of know, win, 5-4, holding off a strong second period comeback. Definitely not boring, congrats boys.

Today at work may have been the busiest day of the year. I realize that the year is new, but, I don’t think it’ll get any busier. For those of you who don’t know what I am, I provide technical support for a large accounting firm. Today was the first day back for a lot of employees who have been off for two weeks. From the moment I signed on until I signed off, I was at it. The day flew by.

I do prefer busy days over quiet but today was a little bit insane. Tomorrow might be better, guess we will see.

Tonight is the World Junior Gold Medal Hockey game between Russia and Canada. As I write this, Canada is up 5-3, late in the 2nd period. Hope they will hold on, who wants to lose to the Russians?

I met with two of the guys that I coached with today for lunch. We went to a place called Wild Rose Brewery. I am not much of a beer drinker, never got a taste for it. The food was ok but wouldn’t draw me back.

Anyway, we talked about the upcoming season. Seeing as I have sort of been on the fence, but never said no, I’ve decided to return to coach for the 2015 season. I think that unless the season is amazing for some reason that it will be my last, I will return to umpiring next year. It is hard to plan ahead that far though, who knows what might happen.

We discussed players who might be coming back, players who’ve aged out and players we might prefer not to see again. We are also not completely sure of the total coaching situation, lots to be decided in the coming months.

We start indoor evaluations a month from now, we will know who’s registered and who hasn’t. I am hoping everyone comes back, time will tell.

Back to my regular day shift at work tomorrow. It will be nice being back to the regular schedule but I’ll miss sleeping in.

Enjoy your week and the first Monday of the New Year.

Today was a relaxing day. I didn’t get up until 9am, sort of lazy on my part, but hey, it’s the weekend.

I have been playing Clash of Clans recently on my iPad. The game is quite addictive. If you have an iPad, iPhone or Android, take a look at it, can be a lot of fun. The main problem with it is that it takes so much time to build your buildings and defenses. The game offers to allow you to speed this process up, but that costs you, real money not just the imaginary gold used in the game.

Calgary is in a bit of a deep freeze right now. It is around -20 or so and we’ve had 8″ of snow
over the last day. I had the fun job of shoveling this morning. It wouldn’t be so bad except that the snowplows pushed up heavy sandy snow onto the sidewalk.

Nothing planned for the rest of the weekend really. Might meet up with some of the coaches to discuss the upcoming season tomorrow. Hard to think about baseball with snow and cold but it’ll be here before we know it.

I have been working the afternoon shift for the last two weeks, 1:30pm – 10:00pm.  Tonight is my last shift.  It wasn’t too bad, likely because it was over the holidays.  Next week, I am back to my normal 7am – 3:00pm shift and it will be welcome.  I have enjoyed being able to sleep in a bit, that is always nice.  Not that I actually sleep right through, I wake up around 6am anyway to let the dogs out and then try to go back to sleep.

Next weekend, I think I am going to be heading to Red Deer to do hardware replacements in the office and a couple of other offices in the area.  I will need to put the dogs into their Pet Resort and I will be staying at some hotel in Red Deer.  I am not huge on hotels but it will save some time over commuting.

Baseball registrations for Babe Ruth start this month.  I am sure there will be coaches meetings as well.  Although I have not committed to coaching again in 2015, I have not said that I won’t so if I am needed again, I will coach.  I think this will be my last year coaching though.  I didn’t enjoy it as much last summer for some reason, I didn’t have the fire that I used to when I coached in Niagara.  I think I will go back to umpiring and be able to set my own schedule as opposed to having one made for me.

Nothing else going on – Calgary had a snowstorm today, 6-8″ of the white stuff, nothing too bad.  I hate shoveling but I guess I will be doing that tomorrow.  Well, what can ya do, it is January and it is Calgary.

So, it is 2015.  Happy New Year.  Hopefully 2015 will be a good year, 2014 wasn’t so bad, at least for me.

I am going to try to blog more often in 2015.  No guarantees, not a New Years resolution, I don’t make those, what is the point?

I didn’t do anything festive last evening.  I was covering the afternoon shift at work, worked until 10pm (midnight eastern time) and then went to bed.  How exciting is that?

New Years Eve is typically an overpriced affair.  I don’t mind going to a house party or something similar but nothing came up so I rang in the New Year asleep.

Today is just a do nothing day – currently watching a Myth Busters marathon.  The excitement continues.  🙂

I guess I haven’t been regularly blogging for a while now.  Oh well, it is my blog and I don’t have to make entries if I don’t want to.  🙂  I guess the main reason is that I rarely even turn my home laptop on any more.  I am on a computer all day, 5 days per week.  The last thing that I really want to do in the evenings is play with my laptop I guess.

I could make entries while working, but, I am supposed to be working.  Now, as I type that, I am working tonight, on a Saturday evening.  I am covering two weeks of evening shifts for one of my co-workers so he can have two weeks off.  It hasn’t been busy (most of the offices are closed, well, actually tonight, ALL of the offices are closed) so the time is passing a little slowly.  I have been able to catch up on some tickets that I have had around for a bit, account setups and what not, so that is a good thing.

I am in my office at home, watching the Harry Potter marathon.  I did receive a phone call (work call) a few hours ago, otherwise, it has been quiet.

Anyway, back to blogging…  I typically use my iPad for web surfing and Facebook and what not, but it isn’t ideal for making blog entries.  The keyboard sort of sucks.  So, anyone who was reading my blog has been deprived lately.  I won’t make any guarantees about increasing my entry frequency either.  So there.

A lot has been going on I guess.  I work out of the house now, 80% of the time, I go into the office on Fridays.  I start early, 7am so I am done pretty early in the day, 3 or 3:30 depending on how long of a lunch I take.

Christmas has came and went – didn’t do too much at all which is the way I like it.  Another year just about done, 2014 has been pretty good I guess, no real complaints.

I need to make a decision in the next few weeks about coaching again in 2015.  I am leaning towards returning to umpiring but right now, I just don’t know.  I might coach again simply because I have left my decision so late, I don’t want to leave the league in any sort of a jam if I back out.

Either way, I am sure I will enjoy coaching again, or I will enjoy returning to umpiring.  Time will tell.

Since I am sure I won’t make another entry before the end of the year, may 2015 be all you want it to be.

By the looks of it, I have not made an entry on my blog in a little over 4 months.  June 19, 2014 was my last post.  Has nothing happened in this time?  No, a lot has happened.  I am not really sure why I have not posted in that time, I have had time, obviously, I just haven’t thought much about it.

So, the baseball season came and went.  I was the club manager of the Calgary Babe Ruth Rockies this year.  It was a fun season although we did not do as well as I hoped we would.  We ended up finishing in 4th place (out of 5 teams) and we had to play an elimination game to get into the play-offs.  This was against the 5th place team.  Well, we lost and the 5th place team went on to win the championship.

Last night was the year end banquet actually.  It was held in the Red and White Club at McMahon Stadium.  Great food, good company and a keynote speaker who I think confused everyone who was in attendance.  It was, well, interesting.

I am now working from home 4 days a week which has been working out pretty well.  I only go into the office on Friday’s.  Not a bad deal really.

I didn’t umpire this summer, sort of missed it.  I might go back to it next summer, I have not as yet decided.

Otherwise, it is same old, leading a regular life I guess.  Maybe I will try to post a little more often…  Who knows?