Today is pi day!!!

No...that WASN'T a typo. March 14 (3-14) is 'pi' day. (Got it yet?)

To celebrate 'pi' day, the Department's Math + Stats Club hosted Pi(e) day, serving assorted slices of pie to faculty, staff and students.

The Department also has a pi club, where members get "pieces" of pi. I am an honorary member, with my slice being the 10141-10145th decimal digits of pi (33665). Back in the day, the Undergraduate club sold mugs that said "Have a coffee with your piece of pi", with a "piece" of pi printed on the bottom.

So, get out there and celebrate pi day!!

Ahhhh... the things I'll do to avoid a class assignment.

Wow, it's been a long time since I've updated!! I promise to try to update a little more often. As you can see, I've done a little redecorating. Send comments via the guestbook.

Holiday pics are finally available. So are the pics I took over the holidays from Greg's parents' new cottage.

Lots of stuff has happened since the last update...

The Ecco outlet in Windsor closed. Thankfully the one in Niagara Falls is still open. Another excuse to visit Kristen (wink).

A secretary in my Department left to take another position, decided she didn't like it, and is coming back on the 21st. We also went through a couple of temps in other positions. Our Department is going through the hiring process for more faculty.

We made the annual holiday visit to Greg's parents, and me to visit Kristen.

Maria and I will be going to Vegas for Sharon's birthday. I won't say here how old she is (You're welcome, Sharon) .

Stay tuned....

FINALLY!!!!! Oakes Family reunion pics are here.

In other news, There are still 8 fans running in the basement, drying out a couple of damp spots. Hoefully, they'll be done with the cleanup tomorrow or Thursday. Then the insurance company can approve the expenditure for the repairs. Then we can get reimbursed for all the stuff that got ruined. Then we get to shopping for new stuff!!!!!

TTFN...

For those of you who are looking for Oakes family reunion photos.....they'll be here in a few days. Why so late?

On Monday night Windsor got hit with a big storm. The sewer backed up...right into our basement. Not the storm sewer - the sanitary sewer. Yep, that's right, an inch of raw sewage covering every square inch of our basement. Imagine my distress, when getting up Tuesday morning, going to the basement to iron something to wear to work. I flipped on the basement light, hit the landing, looked down towards the basement floor, and wondered, "What the....aw crap!!!!" (Literally)

We had someone come to see how much it would cost to clean up before we called the insurance company. When they told us that would cost at least $3500, just for "Emergency cleanup" (only the sewage cleanup and sanitization), we called the insurance company. An adjuster came out right away. Everything is covered, including the laundry that I left on the floor to finish the next night. Thank G-d I'd washed my dainties...no one needs to see THOSE...

Today, the restoration crew came in today, with a dumpster, cleaned up the floor, removed all the debris, brought in EIGHT industrial fans (GEEZ these things are noisy) a de-humidifier that can remove 120 pints of water in a 24 hours period. They also had us crank the A/C down to 20 C (68 F). It's freezing in here. All the furniture is getting turfed, except Greg's desk - it can be dried satisfactorily. None of Greg's books/DVDs/etc., were harmed, nor was his computer.

On the plus side, all the scrap wood that was in the basement from the workbench demolition, and various other projects, is getting carted off - FREE!!! WOOHOO!!! The drywall that flanks either side of the water heater and furnace is getting replaced - the bottom half where the damage was. The panelling that was on the freezer wall is getting removed, and I think they're going to replace it with drywall.

The only out-of pocket expense I'm going to have from all this? The cost to have the drain snaked out - $80.25. Oh yeah, and the hydro (electricity for my American friends) costs to run all these fans and the de-humidifier, and the A/C. The fans are estimated to cost a dollar a day EACH to run, and they'll have to run for quite a few days. The $250 deductible gets taken from the amount that we get for replacement costs for the furniture, etc. Greg will even be reimbursed for his work.

Now, I know I'm not doing the work, so what's my excuse for not having the pics? We just got a new secretary in the Department, the other is on vacation this week, and I've just come back from a two day vacation, and the basement stress on top of it. I just want to sit and do nothing when I come home!!! So you'll just have to wait for a few days.

Just so you know... some of the pics turned out GGREAT!!!!! Just not the ones with ME in them ;)

Stay tuned.....

(courtesy of Internetbumperstickers.com)

WOOHOO!!!!!  This past Sunday, Lance Armstrong won a SIXTH consecutive Tour de France!  Greg's glad the "ordeal" is finally over.    Geez,  these guys race 2000 kilometres PLUS in 21 days, Lance kicks ass by more than 6 minutes over his nearest competitor, it's the second most watched sporting event in the WORLD (next to the World Cup) and Greg has the "guts" to have the opinion that it's not a sport.   Jerk!!!  I'd like to see any of his beloved hockey or football players last ONE day in the Tour, let alone finish it!

In other news Tantie aka deafed aka Sharon (my Zone buddy)  came to vist last week.  We visited the casino (of course), shopped, and went for pedicures.  Fun fun...

 

Oh yeah, I almost forgot...
I am "Host of the Month" (HOM) for Lightning Gammon. For those of you who don't know, I host backgammon tournaments on Zone.com, with a cool bunch of people, in a group called "Lightning Gammon". This the group I went to Vegas to meet back in April.

As part of my "duties" as HOM, each host runs a macro saying who the Host and Player of the month are (I dont run the HOM in my tournies, but that doesn't stop the other hosties from doing when they're in them!! ;) I also do an "interview". It's here.

Lots of news...

Over the Canada Day weekend, I went to visit Kristen and Alan. Visited some nice wineries, bought some yummy fruit wine, and visited Casino Niagara. I bought some chocolate but it was all melty by the time I got it home. "Clusters" that I bought at Picard's Peanuts are now a clump that Greg smoooshed and declared a chocolate "bar".

This past weekend, Greg's family came over to celebrate Sean's birthday. Lots of food, drink (take a peek in the empty liquor cainet, lol) and fun were had by all. Of course we had to make a visit to Casino Windsor.

In other news, Brenda's Birthday stalker strikes again!! For those of you who remember, last year I sent Brenda bunches of bunches of e-cards in the ten days leading up to her birthday. She received so many that she thought she was being stalked. Look at the July 23rd, 2003 entry in 2003 News page for the full story. This year, I repeated the process, but convinced Brenda that I would NEVER pull the same prank twice. Yesterday (her birthday), I sent her a link to this page to see who her cyberstalker was. This was her response. To soften the blow, I invited the Grad House gang to dinner as a surprise.

Today I received my order from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, makers of custom perfume blends. Among the samples I ordered...Gluttony...Hunger...Lust...de Sade...RoadHouse...Pain...Vice. I wonder what Freud would have to say about this?

This weekend one of my Zone.com hostie buddies is coming to visit. More details later... stay tuned.

We visited Greg's parents this weekend. Greg's parents recently bought a hottub.
The hottub kicks ass, especially the lounge seat with the jets all along the leg area.
Greg's parents got the hottub because they have all this disposable cash now that they don't have three boys to feed. They didn't foresee that the boys would want to visit MORE often now that there's a hottub there...

Mmmmmmmm....hoooooottuuuubbbbbbb......DROOL (I've GOT to stop channeling Homer Simpson).

I took some pics of the yard after Greg did some work in it. pics are here.

I'm such a bad friend. I forgot Kristen's birthday.....

HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY KRISTEN !!!!