I can't believe I got it wrong AGAIN!!!!

I do it every year... I remember Kristen's birthday, just never on the right date.....

I got her a cool present at Art in the Park... so that should compensate (I hope).

Speaking of Art in the Park, there seemed to be a lot less pottery and more jewelry and food stuff this year. Of COURSE it was sweltering hot, but at least it didn't rain during one of the days like it usually does. I ordered some earrings to match the gold celtic-inspired ring form the same guy I got the ring from. They will have 5mm peridots on them. Jon had a good time, although he was not optimistic about that. He was calling it "Fart in the Park".

TTFN,

NO MORE HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA THEME!!!

As of the last game of the 2008 Stanley Cup Final, the CBC ended its current license agreement with the 'owners' of the Hockey Night in Canada theme, with no plans to renew it, due to cost issues. I was dumbfounded!!! So, I whipped this email off to the CBC (via their comments form) today.

Today I read with some outrage, that the CBC was not renewing its agreement with the 'owner' of the Hockey Night in Canada theme.

I am sure that the CBC is, or will be, sifting through thousands of letters/emails expressing the same outrage and shock as my own. That theme is as Canadian as hockey itself! Ask a Canadian what would instantly reminds them of Canada, and I can almost guarantee that the Hockey Night in Canada theme is in their top five. Most Canadian can identify it in five notes or less.

The CBC is supposed to be a guardian of those things which make us uniquely Canadian. Don't let yet another piece of our cultural heritage fall by the wayside in the interests in profit margins.

I'm sure the CBC will ignore it...


TTFN,

PENGUINS - REDWINGS STANLEY CUP FINAL!!!

Need I say more?

Yeah... it's been a long time since I've posted...

...but I've been busy, so get over it. Recent events include (not necessarily in their proper order)

• first-round Red Wing playoff game
• I'm THIS close to a Penguins/Red Wings Stanley Cup Final. I am SOOOOOO excited!!!
• I passed probation in my new job.
• I've been playing WAAAY too much Lord of the Rings online. How much is too much? I've only been on for about four months, and I'm already a level 47 (out of 50). Jon is a 48. To be fair, Jon and his buddies took me into areas I probably wouldn't normally would have gone into so early, and levelled up much quicker than normal. Thank G-d an expansion pack is coming up.
• It's been a year since Greg and I broke up. In true Greg form, he weenied out on picking up his crap from my garage. Should I just have a garage sale and get it over with?
• and best news for last...Jon and I have been together for six months!!!

Upcoming events...

• Academic Standing Committee - where the fates of all the people on Academic Probation get decided.
• Head Start - incoming students get to tour campus, and talk to people in their chosen departments, and have a glimpse of all our services.
• Jon and I are planning a trip out to Nova Scotia... with Bandit tagging along. We took a trip in his Jeep to see how she would behave in it. We stopped off at his place. She was still all excited and barked her ass off. I don't thinks we'll bring her back to the apartment building for a while, although we do plan on a short drive, maybe to a Provincial Park or something.
• Maria is going up to Seattle with her sister for a week in September. I'm hoping to join her at the end of that week, and we're going to see Mt. St. Helens, the first stop on our "Volcano Tour". When one oof us ever wins the lottery, we're going on a full Volcano Tour. Stops will include, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, and the list goes on...

TTFN,

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Stupid snow!!

Last night overnight about 7 inches of snow fell. The snow plow came by rather early and I was awoken by the sound of someone stuck in the plowed snow at the corner, revving their engine really high, making themselves even more stuck.

Just as I went to shovel myself out, the snowplow came by again, but not all the way to the edge of the street. This meant I could probably shovel through to get my car out of my driveway. However, just as I was getting down to the end of the driveway, the snowplow came by yet AGAIN, except he had the blade right down scraping the pavement, and right to the edge of the street, leaving a knee- to mid-thigh deep pile of snowplow cement at the end of my driveway. To make matters worse, the son-of-a-bitch had the balls to WAVE at me!!!

Lucky for me, the guy who works at or owns the mechanic's shop across the street came out to plow his sidewalk and parking lot. I asked him if he had time or inclination to get the snow bricks out of the end of my driveway so I could get to work (I was already late by this time). He did after he plowed a couple of sidewalks, including my neighbour 's and my side sidewalk where the snow plow goes. He wouldn't take any money for it either. A big thanks to my knight-in-shining armour!!!

TTFN,

Valentine's Day, 2008

This is Jon.



This is Jon with Bandit. Bandit LOVES Jon. He brings her stuff, the most recent being a stuffed bunny, which, surprisingly enough, is still intact a couple of weeks later.



Most women's boyfriends (GOD I hate that word) would bring fuzzy pink bunny slippers for Valentine's Day, but not mine....nonono. Knowing my love of all thing Monty Python, Jon brought me Monty Python and the Holy Grail Rabbit with the Big Pointy Teeth Slippers! There's even a little pocket for the teeth to fit into. To bad I can't wear them. Bandit thinks that they're stuffed...they're bunnies...they're for HER to eat. He also brought me one of the volumes of Looney Tunes on DVD. This was after surprising me ON Valentine's Day (we didn't exchange gifts until Saturday) with breakfast before I left for work. What a sweetie!

My last day in Math & Stats

Friday was my last day in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. The folks from the Department all went to lunch at El Mayor. There was soooo much food. They just kept bring out platters of new dishes... hummous and baba ghanouz, kibbee and falafel, fatoush and tabouleh salads, a lentil and rice dish, an eggplant and chickpea dish, then platters of shish kafke and shish tawook with this wonderful spiced rice dish, and roast chicken. THEN they brought various desserts and thick coffee.

The folks in the Department left Tim in charge of procuring a going away present for me. He had come into my office one day a week or so ago, and told me about how his wife had been looking for a computer bag. I played right into his hand. I went on and on about how I empathized and how I had been looking all over the place for a bag that DIDN'T look like a computer bag, WHERE I had already been to look for bags, and why I didn't like the ones I had found. The bag he found was perfect! It looks a brown leather tote that you would never know had a computer stored in it. It's even the perfect size for my laptop.






In other news, Jon must be really desperate to have me "understand" his penchant for games like Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO), and Everquest. Earlier in the week, he told me that he had a present for me that I "neither needed nor wanted". When he came over yesterday, he presented me with a copy of LOTRO and a card for 60 days of membership. We set up my character this morning (I'm an elf Lore-Master), and we went through a few training quests. He even added himself and his guild members to my friend list. I've already told him, however, that any time spent playing on LOTRO does NOT count as spending time together. Something tells me that this is going to cut into my poker/blackjack time., dammit.

TTFN.

A new year...a new guy...a new job...

Let's face it, 2007 SUCKED!!! It could only get better for 2008, right? Maybe...

For the longest time I was feeling rather dissatisfied with my life. I thought that, after Greg and I broke up, I would start feeling better about things. Nope. Well, ok, I felt somewhat better, but still overall, blah.

I think the real turning point came when I cancelled the vacation I take every year the week of my birthday. There were faculty interviews, and a decision had to be made and forms filled immediately after a decision was made so the hiring process could get started. At the end of the week NO DECISION. The Committee delayed it until the next week!!! I cancelled vacation for NOTHING!

It was pretty much the sum total of my work life. I pushed paperwork around, and for what? A bunch of bureaucratic bullshit that in the grand scheme of things, meant NOTHING! So some fucked up committee could decide if we followed some procedure correctly? Whoopdee-flippin'-doo!!!! I was going home every day feeling like I had accomplished nothing. And I really hadn't. At least when I worked for Satan at the pharmaceutical company, there was something tangible at the end of the day.

So, I applied for a couple of positions, and got one of them. It's a lateral move, rank-wise and $$, but I'll be working for Associate Deans, instead of a Department Head, so it's a promotion of sorts. I won't have to deal with most of the bureaucracy. I'll be counselling students most of the time. Maybe I'll help a few of them. I'll actually feel like I DID something important with my day. Maybe...

So now you're asking "new guy", what's all this about a new guy? Haha I did the story out of order mwah hahahaha!

Sorry...where was I? Oh yeah, new guy. Maybe next post. It's my blog, and I'll write about stuff (or not) if I want to, stuff (or not) if I want to...

TTFN,

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008 !!