Watch the penguins

%^&%$#@*!!!!! Snow
It's that time of year again, Spring was in the air, it was getting warm, the sun was shining....then boom, lots of snow! We got closer to 15 cm of snow Monday and I just heard on the radio this morning that we're supposed to get another 10cm today and more Thursday. Blech! I love snow when it comes in December, January, and February, but as far as I'm concerned, when it comes at the end of March and after it is a very unwelcome visitor. A couple of years ago we got 30 cm on April 9, my Dad's b-day, I remember it because I tried to drive up to the townships. It happens every year, I don't know why I'm so disappointed and surprised every time.
I'm pretty busy at work, I have a whole bunch of stuff to complete for Thursday. Despite the schedule and the amount of work to be done, it doesn't feel hectic here and I like that. Still, better get to it!

Weekend - the review
First of all, way to go Willie, we know that you could do it!
The wallpaper in the diningroom has some sort of special power, it gave us other things to do and thus remained intact, smugly stuck on the walls. Saturday we slept in and went to the accountant and by the time we got back, it was time to disassemble shelves to go to Jon's house. Afterwards, the guys came back and were gaming until after midnight. Sunday was nice, so we decided to take a walk instead and generally lazed about. Maybe next weekend.......
It's snowing here, we're supposed to get 10 cm by tomorrow. The good news is that it's going to get warmer tomorrow, so the snow should be gone by Wednesday! Yay! Still, it is a bit depressing to look out the window and see the snow blowing past.....

A Saint Patrick's Day Gift

I don't often post directly to the blog these days, but today I felt that I have something worth (maybe) crowing about. My dog Willie was in an obedience match yesterday and not only did he qualify (meaning he passed, something he hasn't done in 4 years), he also won a first! I wouldn't have believed it except for the fact that I have a lovely ribbon hanging up in my study at home. Willie was tired after all his exertions yesterday and I think today he is only too happy to have a day off. I am thrilled to have bragging rights for a day.

This seems too good to be true........

Friday!
This week has just flown by! Last night I caught a bit of a new show on Fox called "how to make it as a rockstar" or something like that. It's a 20-something guy and his band trying to make it big, with inner commentary. It's definitely worth watching again. I'm hoping that HMV calls today to tell me that my box set o' Cuban jazz has arrived. They did say that it wouldn't take long......need some good latin rhythms for removing wallpaper this weekend.

Newfies take the cup!
It's funny how your brain works sometimes. I often fall back to sleep in the morning with the radio on. This morning was no exception. CBC ws doing a story on ice hockey in Ireland. They've put together a dozen teams or so and they compete for a championship. Apparently, it's really catching on there as a sport that all can come and watch without Catholic/Protestant animosity unlike football or rugby. Anyway, so I'm dreaming while this story is going on and my brain has taken the news story and turned it into Newfoundland winning the Stanley Cup. Perhaps someday Newfoundland will have a hockey team in the NHL, but until then Dina, you're dreaming!

Play with Lego online!!

Not for the religiously inclined: Lordco

Sunshine!!
Another lovely, sunshiny day-what the heck am I doing inside? Didn't do much last night. For some reason, I've been feeling very tired lately. During the day, I have a ton of energy and plan to do very energetic things; when I get home, I can't possibly understand how I thought that I would have the energy to do anything. Lots of stuff to do at work this week and next week, I may have to do some overtime to get it finished. This weekend we are going to start removing wall paper from the diningroom.
Against my better judgement, I watched Survivor last night. Some of the characters are so pathetic that you wonder how the heck they got on the show. There's one girl who is obviously there for one reason: she's got a huge pair of fake boobs and wears almost nothing over them. The show's dumb, but the setting is beautiful! Makes me really want to get to a tropical island.

Check this out! Select Montreal en photos and type in your address I can see your house from here!

Snaps!
I picked up three rolls of pictures last night. These rolls of film have been sitting around for about 6 months. We found them when we were cleaning up the diningroom last month. I thought that one of them was lost for good. I remembered taking certain pictures, but they never showed up in the stuff that we had developed. It's neat to get pictures back. I never know what the heck was on the rolls, and then I'm generally a bit surprised that I would waste my film on so many pictures of the cats. This time they're pictures leftover from the wedding, Robert's second b-day, and the fireman charity strip extravaganza, hardly a single dull picture in the bunch! I promise that I will get around to posting the fireman photos soon........
I made peanutbutter cookies last night and brought the majority in to work today. Steve came home and told me that our friend Dave got layed off. It's a drag, but he didn't really enjoy his job anymore and I'm sure that he'll find something else soon. So many people getting layed off, it makes me wonder where people are getting the money to spend on huge houses and big cars. I drive through Hampstead on my way to work, and you would not believe how many houses are up for sale and sold on the next day-these are $500,000+ homes! Who's still making lots of money and is sure enough about their job to risk those kind of mortgage payments? I guess I'm bad for the economy.....

We seem to be experiencing some technical difficulties.....

Tuesday, still editing.....
I admit that I'm starting to get tired off all this editing and I'm looking forward to finally making the changes in the actual documents. This may seem mundane to you, but I'm thinking it's looking heavenly right now :-)
Last night I made muffins and they don't taste like sawdust or soggy newspaper, so I consider that a job well done. I added cranberries which give them a bit of sour flavour. I also made some bread, gotta love that bread machine, we use it all the time!
In addition, I tuned into the new show, American Embassy. I think that Steve summed it up nicely when he described it as "Felicity goes to London". I had hoped that it would be kind of West Wingy, but the dialogue is poor and the drama is strained. Blonde cutie goes to London to work at the embassy, almost instantly finds herself with two sexy love interests (a CIA guy and a Lord). Her neighbour is a transexual with lots of nice clothes to lend her, and the American embassy looks like some kind of frat house. The episode ended with a sudden car bomb that came out of no where and killed a few honest, American citizens. Ugh! I can't believe that shows like this exist and they cancelled The Tick!! (Yes, I'm still obsessing about that)
Tonight I'm gonna make some cookies and do some reading.

Why don't they just get it over with and call them Smarties?

Weekend review
We had a great weekend! Friday night was dinner at Byblos for Adriana's birthday. The Iranian food was very tasty and flavorful, I'd do that again! We got home late and puttered on Saturday. Saturday night we went to Kathy and Ralph's for fine French fare and excellent conversation. Their oldest dog, Willie, was ready for us, bringing us all his balls and toys to throw and play with. Trevor, the young one, had an attack of "strangers in my house-run!" He finally came up to me by the end of the evening, but was very unsure. He'll probably grow out of that with age. The drive home from the West Island was wild! We had a huge wind storm Sat. night and into Sunday. At times, I heard that the wind got up to 100km/hr. That's a good wind! There was all sorts of garbage and leaves flying everywhere on the road, sort of like a small hurricane or tornado. At certain times, the garbage was moving faster than we were! We got about halfway home when the heavy rain started and lightening. It turned cold overnight and by the time Sunday rolled around it was somewhat snowy, followed by brilliant sunshine and then 15 minutes of snow so heavy that you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you. Bizarre! Sunday was a totally useless day for me, I watched some tv, napped, and did a few groceries. Tonight I'm going to give muffins another try, this time I'm going for a less healthy recipe so they have some flavour....

Just as I suspected.......



Find out what kind of driver you are!

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY EVERYONE!!!

Are you happy to be a woman at this point in history? I think that women of our generation are in a difficult but exciting time of transition. Sometimes it feels like all the great women's movements are behind us, but there is something changing and shifting in the way we look at ourselves and feel about the world. I think the time of women's greatest achievements and contributions to history is here and just around the corner. Look at our daughters and how different they are from us! It's an exciting time to be girl, in spite of all the awful problems we know about and hear about every day. It's not all rosy,, and I know this isn't (and may never be) literally true, but -- women rule!!

It wasn't Wednesday? Does anyone pay attention?
Ok, yesterday was clearly not Wednesday, where are my editors? Seriously, getting lonely all by myself........
We had a great evening with Guislaine and Ben and the 3 month old chocolate lab puppy, he's so cute!!!! We had yummy roast chicken and good conversation.
When we got home (very late), we were assaulted with a most toxic smell in the stairwell. It was kind of a cross between car exhaust and candle smoke and something toxic burning. We checked the house to make sure that we weren't on fire, and then I sent Steve down to talk to the neighbours. Apparently my neighbour decided to clean his oven yesterday evening, and the fumes not only permeated his house, but wafted up to ours as well. His daughters were hanging out in the basement to get away from the smell which started giving me a headache after we'd been home for 5 minutes. It was pretty much gone by this morning. What kind of moron decides to use something in a can which must have the words, "well ventilated" on it somewhere, in the middle of the winter when all the doors and windows are closed?

Whoop whoop Wednesday
Again, I'm trying to fool myself into staying awake. So far, so good. Scott left this morning and we miss him already. Come back Scott!!! I have discovered that I need new pants. It's either that or lose all the weight that I've put on in the last year,ok, so I should do that anyway, but I need pants now!!!! It's not like all the eating out lately has helped. I'll get some fat pants and enjoy my lovely dinners, then drag myself to the gym :-) Tonight we are heading out for our first dinner of the three night dinner extravaganza.

Blogger Survivor! Blogger Survivor!

Whacky Tuesday
Ok, so it's not whacky, but that's how I'm marketing it to myself so that I stay awake and employed. Still working on the editing and finding tons of mistakes. This is what happens when you don't work with and editor. Last night Scott treated us to BBQ chicken because Windsor doesn't have any. Windsor does not make much in terms of good food. When Scott comes for a visit, he has smoked meat sandwiches, BBQ chicken, Greek food, Chinese, and goes home with a bag of bagels. I gues we are spoiled to have so many good restaurants in our fair city. Friday night, we're going out to an Iranian restaurant for Adriana's birthday. I've never been to one, so it should be an adventure.
Last night I also struggled with my computer and won. Scott purchased Civ III and it would not run on my computer. I updated the video driver and spent another two hours changing settings and upgrading and getting patches. It works now, yay! The strangest bug in the program occurred because I had more than 255 fonts installed. Bizarre, and what the hell do I need all those fonts for?

Just when you thought there couldn't be another 'which X are you' quiz:



take the which one of the trading spaces cast are you? quiz!



http://members.aol.com/chuckchickadee/test.html

Long live periods at the end of sentences!
The coup has taken place and we won! From now on, all sentences will be ended with periods and the world sleeps safer tonight. It wasn't that hard, no one put up much of a struggle.
I'm sooooo sleepy. After the writer's meeting this morning, I was just dead. I think editing the manuals is taking its toll on my energy. These things aren't page turners :-)
All I can think about is putting my head down on my desk and taking a nice, long nap........snore.........

The weekend update
We had a pretty good weekend. Friday night we cleaned and moved the clutter out of most of the rooms into the room opposite the bedroom and closed the door. Of course, you can't actually get into that room, but at least we didn't have to look at the majority of the junk. Saturday we cleaned and then went to the airport and picked up Scott. We all went grocery shopping for the party and then went back home and relaxed and did some prep work for the party. The party was great, most people settled in the livingroom in front of a nice fire and talked and laughed. We had cake and general merriment. Thanks to all who came for the celebration! Sunday was the quiet day. It was beautiful and sunny and warm in the morning, but turned cold and rainy in the afternoon, perfect weather for vegging out. Sunday night I went over to Maggie's for the bookclub. This morning, Steve called Scott and asked him to run the dishwasher. We would normally start it just before leaving in the morning for work, but we didn't want the noise to wake up Scott. Scott called Steve a little later to tell him that the dishwasher had started leaking and was flooding the kitchen! Thank goodness somebody was there to stop the darn thing and mop up, otherwise we would have come home to a flooded kitchen and a very angry downstairs neighbour! Poor Scott! We'll have to take a look at it tonight and see if there's a blocked drain somewhere or a leaky seal. Scott is off downtown this afternoon to do some shopping and wander about. Tonight? Who knows?

Friday!
Again we are at the end of the week! I've started reviewing all the manuals that I will be in charge of (40 or so) and editing them. Funny what you find in documents that four other people have worked on. The first thing is that two people I work with, one my boss, seems to think that imperative steps such as "Click OK" do not require a period. The other four writers here disagree with this and we are planning on staging a coup at the next meeting. It's a sentence for heaven's sake! Besides that, there's the old "press, click, click on" thing that has to be resolved. I'm a minimalist and prefer the least amount of words necessary. People don't want to read, so if you make it easy for them by cutting down the number of words in a procedure, they may actually try to follow it before calling tech support. We're way past the time when you had to write "Using your mouse........" instructions, users are more savvy about these things (unless you're writing for AOL or the internet for dummies). So, that's what I'm doing today. I'll keep everyone updated on the coup.

Stupid elves
Damn cleaning elves never showed up! I'll whack them upside their little felt hats the next time I see them. That means that Steve and I will have to clean the house ourselves before the party tomorrow night. Little bastards! Steve can't understand why I get myself into a small tizzy about straightening up the house before company comes. It's what I was always taught to do and therefore have no power over that part of myself that screams "dust, mop, tidy!!!!!!!!!" before parties and such. Is it wrong? Am I neurotic?
House guest
We are getting an unexpected, yet very welcome surprise visitor this weekend. Scott, Steve's brother, is coming for a visit. We pick him up tomorrow from the airport and Steve and I are thrilled!

Halfiversary!
Steve and I have now been married for six months, half a year!!! So far, it's been marvelous, which is good because I think the warranty just expired :-)

Where's the driver? Travel pod adds new twist to transit

Happy Birthday Steve!
It is the b-day of the Steve today. He opened up presents from me and his folks this morning. Last night I wrapped things and watched some PBS. Lately, it seems that PBS shows a lot of marathon self-help garbage that I can't be bothered with, but it does have NOVA, possibly one of the best programs on tv. A few weeks ago, I watched a NOVA on fireworks that was pretty good, and last night they aired a show on the search for the first tetrapods, the first creatures with four legs that spawned us all, animals, humans, the whole shebang. PBS also aired a show on Tesla last night. A few weeks ago, they did Mandelbrot.
What I like about these one hour documentaries is their ability to explain and teach regular people, like myself, about the sciences. As a tech writer, I can appreciate the process of researching and the editing the content for general audiences and making the information entertaining to watch. I'd love to work on a show like NOVA, it would be the ultimate tech writing :-)

Iguana Throwing
And just when you thought people could not get any weirder...

Funky Fries
Blue fries, purple ketchup... Is this the shape and colour of food to come? Heinz certainly thinks so. One thing's for sure: chocolate fries will not be gracing our kitchen table any time soon. I have enough trouble keeping our rowdy troops in line without firing them up with a chocolate rush!

If you find those cleaning elves, Dina, tell them to come over to our place when they're done at yours. I could use some help, even from little green men.

Ok, the Canadian Men Rock Too!!!!
I watched part of the game yesterday, of course! What a great win! It was disappointing to hear this morning that a bunch of people took over a downtown bus and trashed it, but they seem to have left the shops alone this time. Why do people feel that they have the right to vandalize things at times like these?
Had a great weekend, the party at Rebecca and Dave's was lots of fun and the food was good too! It's great to get together with friends, especially the ones that you don't see very often. Sunday was spent doing little or nothing, a touch of cleaning, but that was about it. Probably should have gotten more done considering we have a lot to do before the party next Saturday. Time to call the cleaning elves!

Canadian Women Olympic Hockey Players Rock!!!!!
Let's hear it for our ladies, they really know how to do it! Congratulations on your spectacular win and being gracious even when the ref was calling penalties on everything!

Friday!!
Wheeee, almost over for another week! I had a very quick week of work actually, can't complain. My officemate and I finished a project that was supposed to take 10 days in two, so I started in on some other stuff. Unfortunately, I didn't know that someone else was working on the same stuff and so I ended up wasting two hours. Ugh! Now I have to find more stuff to do this afternoon. We're heading over to Dave and Rebecca's housewarming party Saturday night, that should be a blast! They bought a great house in NDG a few months ago perfect for BBQs and social events. We are also planning a trip to Club Price because we are nearly out of toilet paper, that's how we know it's time to go to stock up on all things in bulk. Hopefully, we'll manage to get out without too much extra crap.

Evil Overlord list

Should have said something last month.....
Fox started airing "The Tick" last Fall. It's a tv show based on the comic and it was funny, I mean, really funny! I say was because they cancelled it at the end of January. I had a look, and there are quite a few sites where you can voice your dissatisfaction at Foxs' decision. The Tick's battle cry is "Spoon!", so one campaign is actually asking people to send Fox spoons with their letters.


Here's an example of the dialogue, Tick is talking to his sidekick, Arthur, who has recently decided to give up accounting for a life in crimefighting:
Arthur, I believe in you! I always have! That's why I'm here! Destiny dressed you this morning, my friend, and now Fear is trying to pull off your pants. If you give up, if you give in...you'll end up naked, with Fear just standing there laughing at your dangling unmentionables!
Try to picture this done deadpan by Patrick Warburton, he's excellent!

Attack of the flowcharts
My job today is to go through a whole bunch of flowcharts and make changes. Many of them require huge additions, which requires me to try to cram stuff together and find space where none exists. After that, I have to actually check and see if the darn thing makes sense. Since I was NOT a logic major and have the attention span of a gnat, trying to follow a Voice Channel Seizure at Handoff procedure over 6 flowcharts is my own, private hell.

I am ELMO.

I'm cute, cute, as a button!


Which Sesame Street Character Are You?

A little excitement for the morning
I was working at my desk like a good Ericsson employee when the building alarm started going off. It's one of those beep.......beep.....beep things, really loud and annoying. No one paid any attention to it because it wasn't followed with instructions to evacuate. On it went. I went and got coffee. I came back to my desk, sat down and tried to keep working beep....beeep.....beeeep.....
After a couple of minutes, the alarm sped up beep.beeep.beeeep.beepbeepbeepbeepbeep. People started paying attention, and when the alarm turned into a hospital flatline of death, we decided to leave. Shortly after this, some security guy made an announcement that we should leave and this wasn't a drill. Thanks for letting us know.....
Of course, the elevators didn't work. Now, the main problem with the elevators not working is that a member of our team is in a wheelchair, not one of those regular jobbies, but a fully electric one with tons of support, because he needs it. We left his chair in the 3rd floor stairwell, and two guys managed to carry him downstairs, but we had no where to put him, so ended up bringing out a cafeteria chair which wasn't optimal. A lady from our floor brought her van around so he could keep warm.
The firetrucks arrived and many firemen (yay!) went into the building. We milled for about 30 minutes before we were allowed back in. Problem? Apparently a generator on the roof burnt out and the smell got into the building.
Ericsson, Swedish for "what fire?"......

Steve's at work!
Steve started at Pratt & Whitney today. He was waiting for another offer to come through, but they can't make an official offer for two weeks, so Steve decided to start at Pratt and see if he likes it. If other offers appear, he can always decide to change later. He was out of the house at 7 this morning, about when I get up, poor guy! I stopped by the local supermarket yesterday on the way home and ran into my friend, Adriana. She was there with her mom, but had lost her in the aisles. We talked for a while (she teased me about having bran in my cart-it's for muffins!) then she went off on her mom search again. She passed by me again while I was waiting in line, her mom had gone through the line and was looking pretty mad. I was carrying my purchases out through the parking lot when I was honked at for walking through a parking space that someone was trying to take. I apparently gave the driver one of my patented "looks from hell" before I realised that it was Melissa! We had a quick chat. She was about to grab some supper stuff because her boyfriend was coming over for supper. She's really busy, working full time at Nortel where they're incredibly understaffed, doing her MBA part time in the evenings and trying to take a wine tasting course! I suddenly feel very lazy! I got home, made myself some supper (Steve was playing with Jon last night) and then made muffins, pizza dough, and bread for lunches today. The muffins do not taste as good as the ones in the cafeteria, but they're probably better for me (all that bran, dontcha know). The pizza dough is for supper tonight. I divided it in two and wrapped it up in plastic wrap and stuck it in the fridge. This morning, there were two balls of expanded dough that looked like they were ready to explode from the plastic at any moment. Hope they don't take over the fridge today......

By the way:
Happy Birthday Coffee Ring!!!!!!!
We've had a great first year, let's keep the coffee perking!

Lunchtime!
Wheh! Busy day so far! We've got to have a whole mess of stuff out by tomorrow, so the peddle is to the floor and the obscenities are wafting from across the hallway as my boss experiences hardware and software problems which are aggravated by the deadline. Luckily, I have no such stress, I'm just busy. Listening to Ben Folds Five (wish I hadn't bought you dinner just before you dumped me on your front porch). I feel like having a big bowl of wonton soup from a restaurant on Queen Mary, it's really good soup. Perhaps I can snag some on the way home. I didn't stay up to watch the ice dancing last night, but I heard that the Canadians fell at the end. At least there won't be a controversy about that. For some reason, the page is taking forever to load right now. Maggie said that she was having problems earlier. It was fine this morning, could be blogger.
Steve update: He has a verbal confirmation from the other company for more money, he's still waiting for something in writing....

Back to the Monday
I had a great weekend. Kuan came up Friday and Maggie came over and we had supper and gabbing the better part of the evening. We got up Saturday and lazed about until Kuan left to spend some time with a couple of other friends. I saw her again Sunday and went over to Maggie's for supper. Steve was a wonderful host and made breakfast and cleaned up after us. He stopped by a game store and won a Buffy the Vampire Slayer t-shirt that was a promo for the card game. He promised that I could wear it too :-)
Steve job news: He got a call Friday from another company that might want to hire him for a permanent position for more money. I'm waiting to hear the latest update, should be today......
Listening to Dido - No Angel, I really like this cd, there's so many different styles on the cd, it's difficult to pin her down. The lyrics are nice as well. What's everyone else listening too lately?

Friday!!
Yippee! It's the end of the week, Kuan's driving up and Steve has a job offer!
Lots of good things going on today. Firstly, it's the end of the week, woo hoo! Secondly, Kuan! How I've missed her! Thirdly, Steve got a call from Pratt & Whitney and they offered him a job. He's thinking about it for the day and then calling them back this afternoon with his answer. I'm good with whatever he decides, but it looks like I'm out of a househusband!
This weekend will be spent hanging out with Kuan and relaxing. Life is good!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Ladies of the Ring
So it's one year already for the Coffee Ring! I guess getting all the members together would be impossible, as we're scattered all over. But I want to let you know how much I appreciate this great place where we can all get together and share ideas and news. I visit the Ring almost every day during the week. It's a great way of keeping in touch with some terrific women. The Coffee Ring was a fantastic idea, Dina. Thanks so much for giving us this place to meet and chat!

Holy wind chill!
My goodness but it's coooold out! With the wind chill it's something like -25C! Time to crawl into the caves and hibernate. This cold stretch can't last much longer though, so I guess I'll count my blessings that I don't have an outside job. Speaking of jobs, Steve has an interview today! He got in late last night, so I only saw him this morning, all snug and cosy under the comforter while I had to get up and go outside. He was so cute, but I still wanted to smack him :-)

The first anniversary of The Coffeering is a week away. Anyone have ideas about how we should celebrate?

We were robbed!
I stayed up to watch the pairs figure skating final and it was truly disappointing. I like a good Russian skater as much as the next person, but the Canadians skated better last night and should have won. It must be devastating to go out and have the best performance of your life and be judged second to a performance where someone made a mistake and just didn't have the emotional depth. Figure skating judging is awful and inexact and sometimes corrupt, but that's what happens when you have a sport that's so open to interpretation.

Back to work!
I didn't sleep that well last night. The wind was really blowing last night and our bedroom window rattles, so I kept waking up. Still, not like I have mentally challenging work today, so it could be worse. Had a pretty good weekend. Went up to the townies on Saturday and visited the folks. An old friend of the family gave us our wedding gift-a painting of the Lachine lighthouse and landing on wood. It's really nice. The artist finally finished it and got it to her. We visited and Mom made a ham (!) and then we jumped into the car and headed back to Mtl. We got home, changed, and then left for a Indian restaurant where Irene was celebrating her birthday. We had a great time! Afterwards, we went back to her house and had cake and played with the kitten. Sunday we cleaned the house, I made cookies and we had nice visits with Elizabeth and Samuel, and Francois. Francois came by to play some games with Steve. All in all, a very nice day.
Steve update: He's doing good and has two interviews lined up this week!
Weird dream: I dreamt that Steve was showing me Lord of the Rings action figures and kissing my shoulder.......any idea what that one means?

Friday!
Wheeee! It's Friday and I'm a happy girl! We're very busy, but the deadline was pushed back, so I don't have to work this weekend. I'm sitting at my desk today because I can use my PC. I have my music and I'm editing html files, life is good! I would like to go up and visit the folks tomorrow, we'll see how it goes. I'd also love to sleep in a bit.......

Dang!
Didn't have the right numbers on my lottery ticket, so I had to come back to work. Things are not going very well here. We have to have hundreds of files converted from Frame to HTML by Monday and the conversion isn't going well and I'm working next to my boss because my UNIX machine still hasn't materialized so I'm using his while he's on his PC. In the past few days, I've discovered that my boss swears ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME!!! It's not bad when I'm elsewhere, but sitting right next to him is a real pain in the a**.
I may actually be working this weekend...... go figure!
On the up side, I have a kickass lunch because almost no one was at the STC executive meeting and Steve brought home leftovers. I have turkey chili, cornbread, salad, and a tomato, spinach and feta wrap to go with my usual yogurt and carrots. In addition, there's also this really good dessert with chocolate, whipped cream and raspberries, but I didn't bring that with me. Thanks again to all the people who didn't show up......

Dreams of wealth?
I remembered a snippet of a dream I had last night. I was at a store and found this little wallet for sale. It was wrapped in a ziploc bag. After I paid for it, I opened it and discovered a $20 dollar bill and $120 dollar bill inside. I was very pleased with my purchase (the $120 bill didn't seem to phase me at all). I'm thinking that I should play the lottery tonight.......

I think that the gender gap is a direct result of a wave of pseudo-feminism created by marketing executives. Men are constantly portrayed as idiots and incompetants in commercials, sitcoms and movies. We are doing our men wrong and it's only natural that it will have an effect on the new generations of boys wandering through the school systems lacking self esteem. Boys do commit suicide more than girls. Girl power? It's great, but not at the expense of the other sex........this is my rant :-)

Ah! My Son Is a Taliban!
Salon has a great article on how to detect early on whether your child has Taliban or other extreme religious tendencies. Things to look for include sudden bursts of anger, a really dirty face, and a hovel-like bedroom resembling a cave. Come to think of it, that could be me....

There's also an interesting article on the perceived gender gap now in favour of girls and the differing schools of thought on why boys are beginning to lag behind girls. I'm reading The Wonder of Boys by Michael Gurian and I'm finding some of his observations on how boys are hardwired really fascinating. Coming from a family of all girls, I think I understand dog psychology better than male psychology (even our dog was female!). My pediatrician also talked to me recently about "boy energy" versus "girl energy" and I had to admit there was truth in what she said. It certainly helps me know to understand why my little guy needs to make so much NOISE and throw things around and take things apart.

Nobody could email me, Steve didn't even get my email that I sent him. There were some severe network problems on Friday which could be causing the trouble. In the mean time, I can check my home email through hotmail so mail me there and I'll get it at some point. Maybe this is something that happens to all new employees, I have no idea :-)
I got really busy this afternoon and ended up staying until 6 trying to finish something. I have payroll orientation tomorrow morning, not sure how they're going to fill two hours showing me how to fill out a timesheet. I would give this day a 5 out of ten. Everyone was very nice to me and the day passed nicely. Wish that I hadn't felt so tired, but I'm used to my afternoon naps don'tcha know .......

Your New Email

Hey there! I have tried fruitlessly all afternoon (not all, but several times) to respond to your email and my reply keeps bouncing back. I don't whether anybody else has had this problem. In other words, we're not all ignoring you!

You should be seeing a new colour and a background image. Wait for it to load completely.
I'm at work and managed to get internet access at around 11, my UNIX machine is still not working, and I have no phone. I was mistaken about my officemate, he's actually a rocket scientist..... ack! My boss was hung over from over indulgence caused by the superbowl, which has been pretty amusing to watch as he shows me around the office. I should have some editing to do this afternoon which will certainly speed up a pretty quiet day. I know where the coffee and the bathrooms are, that's enough for one day :-)

It's not too hard to read, but to me it looks exactly the same! Am I missing something?

Thanks Becca!!!! Got tired of the white background, what do you think of this? Is it too hard to read?

You're fabulous Dina; congratulations and good timing, too. You're so fabulous that you will be welcome anywhere you go. Good luck and don't worry. Worrying's never worth it, right? Right!

It's official!
As of Monday, I will be working on contract at Ericsson. I wandered down this morning and signed the paperwork, saw my desk and met my officemate Charles, a tech writer with an engineering degree from MIT (I feel stupid already.....). I'm going to be working on mobile network positioning, tracking people by using their cell phones essentially. There's a lot of work and the project manager had to jump through several hoops to get me in. The team all seem like normal, down-to-earth people which will be a nice change. There's also a chance that this will lead to full-time employment in the future, time will tell.
I took the car in to the garage yesterday and sure enough, there's a short somewhere in the wiring. The mechanics said that the car should be ready sometime this afternoon and will probably not cost me an arm and a leg. It snowed here and then started to rain, so there's a crust of snow and slush everywhere and it's slippery, welcome to winter! I'm looking forward to getting back to work, but at the same time I'm filled with that tiny bit of dread you get when you start at a new place and know nothing. I hope that I do a good job....... :-)

Good news!
Just got a call from you-know-who, I'm going in tomorrow to meet with HR for a short interview and then hopefully I will be starting on Monday!!!! Yay!!!! Steve has an interview this afternoon for a possible four month contract as well. Thank you STC Montreal!!! Making friends and having a community to fall back on really helps when you're looking for work. We went to the meeting last night on PDFs and saw Julie and Tamu and tons of other people. Whooppeeee!
The drag is that we almost didn't make it because my car failed to start. Looks like I'll have to get a boost and then take the car in to the garage today because it's obviously not the battery.....doh!

So sorry to hear about Steve, Dina. When you hear about the layoffs around you, they're always just statistics until they affect somebody you know. Then it begins to hit home. This recession has been merely a minor nuisance for me until today. Now it's real. I suspect, however, that it's a phenomenon that's going to touch some of us more than once in life in this savage world of unchecked capitalism. When my Dad was out of work in 1984, he hid it extremely well, but it really shook him as he was the only one in his surroundings to be hit by what was a relatively new practice: rationalization. But I wouldn't be surprised if it happened to me or those around me a few times over the span of our careers.

To help take your mind off your travails, here are some wonderful and absurd quotes from notable people, called Moments of Zen. My fave was from The Tick, on why there are so few evil morning people. Obviously, he's never met Jean-Luc...

Bad news.....
Steve called me Friday morning and asked if I could pick him up outside the office. You guessed it, he was layed off. He survived the other two layoffs last year, but couldn't dodge it the third time. His boss felt terrible having to tell him the news. He's doing ok, we're not going to worry about it yet. I was hoping the you-know-who would call and ask me to start this week, but no phone calls yet. Hopefully the job will come through soon so Steve and I can just switch places for a while.
We had a great bookclub meeting last night at Irene's place. Her kitten was very well behaved for the guests. We spent the weekend finishing the office. We now have shelves and basically the rest of the books up. Today will be getting the dining room organized and doing some groceries. We're both on vacation, so might as well enjoy ourselves and get a few things done!

The first coat of paint is up! I'm starting to feel a bit squeemish about the red stripe now, perhaps I'll weenie out.......
Happy Birthday Kathy!!!!!!!!!!!

Then, let's get plastered!
Couldn't resist... a little late January stupid humour...I'll crawl back to my cave again.

Have fun with your plaster!

Let the plastering begin!
I went out and got some joint compound and tape and fixed the large cracks in the corner of the office last night. The room is basically cleared, just the desks left in there because they are way too heavy for me to move. This morning I fixed a few more things that I didn't see last night and soon I will start sanding - wheeeee! I hate the prep work and the dust, but it's going to pay off, just like it did in the other rooms. I've decided to go with a light tan colour everywhere, the ceiling will get painted tan as well (I have a theory that this will actually make the room look a bit larger). To punch it up, I'm going to put a 4-5 ft wide horizontal red stripe near the top of the wall and run it around two walls. I'm going to hang book shelves over the stripe areas, but I think that it will add some pizazz. I'm hoping that it will look good. I'm using the red that's in the entryway and will be in the livingroom, so I think that it will tie in nicely. Whatdya think?

Home Depot - a review
In the past, we have reviewed books and movies on the blog, so why not hardware stores? I'm a hardware store addict, I love aisles and aisles of tools, wood, paint, and other building supplies. So for all the fellow addicts, here's my review of the new Home Depot on St. Antoine. I made my way to the store yesterday afternoon. The layout of the parking lot is a bit confusing. There are at least two lots for cars, one is at the "front" of the store and then there's a two-level lot at the side. You can't see the two-level lot from the front of the store, which was almost completely empty. I parked my car in the empty lot and discovered the other lot as I walked around to the main entrance. The store was pretty empty as well, although I'm sure that it's probably busier on weekends and after 5.
It's set up like any other large hardware store, although there was something slightly more cavernous about the design. I think that it's because there's quite a bit of open space at the front of the store before the aisles start. This will be handy on busy days because the cash lines won't impede people wandering around with their carts. The lighting and the paint departments are the first thing that you see directly ahead from the entrance, I guess they're the most popular with do-it-yourselfers. The lighting department has the usual products plus a whole bunch of very nice ceiling fans from Hampton Bay. The painting department carries CIL, BEHR, and Ralph Lauren and they have all the faux painting gadgets. I found the store layout kind of hard to figure out. They have a lot of stuff showcased (shelves, kitchen and bathroom cabinets), but it's hard to see the products individually because they're shelved. I also had trouble seeing prices for items because other items were hiding them. They have some different tile and flooring products than Reno Depot, so it's worth a look if you want some variety. Their wood section is laid out nicely, I prefer it to Reno. It seems easier to find project wood. The tool cage at Home Depot also contains things like hinges, which I found rather odd. Normally, the tool cages of the big stores are for power tools, drill bits, nice hammers and saws and blades. Perhaps hinges are a top theft item? The prices all seem to be in the same ballpark as Reno. I think that Reno stocks more items though. I did have a couple of sales people approach me. They were very pleasant and although the store was new, they seemed to have some idea of where to find things. All told, I will probably go back from time to time to see what new products they have, but Reno is only 5 minutes from my house and I see no reason to defect.

Another Day and Another Blog

Well fellow bloggers, I too am around. This has not been a fun two weeks but at least I know where I stand. You may recall my telling you months ago that all CDS employees would receive a letter sometime this month telling them whether or not they would have job at the end of 2002. Well, on Tuesday, January 8th we were informed that we all have jobs as of December 2002 but that is only because the deadline has now been pushed to March 2003. Yes, you are reading this correctly. So instead of 12 months notice, you now have 15 months. When you start to think about it, who wins here? If you are among those asked to stay, there is the whole survivor thing plus the fact that you were told your role could change anyway and there is no guarantee that you will be in the same job. If that is the case and you don't like it and leave, too bad, no soup (severance for you). If on the other hand you are being asked to leave, there is the issue of rejection, and then having to stay until the end to get your severance. You are also required to perform properly. However, you do get to collect your money and go. A no win situation at worst and at best, unknown oppportunities no matter which letter you received.

How did I do in what I have come to term "the CDS do I have a job lottery?" The short answer is, I got what I needed and wished for.
Yes, you have to be careful what you wish for but I still wished for it and got it and have accepted it.

I'm back!
Well you have at least one of the fold here with you, Dina. It's nice to be back among the virtually living after a prolonged contract that came right on the heels of the Christmas holidays. For one long, lonely month, I had no time for resolutions, taking stock or anything other than writing, making supper and wiping noses. It'll all seem so worth it tonight, though, when I grin and bill it. My Visa bill will thank me immensely.

Your toffee tea sounded lovely. I've had maple tea, which was delightful, but haven't seen the toffee one.

I'll leave you with this gem of a Web site I stumbled onto. It's poetry so bad, it's good. He had me hooked with this intro on the home page, "I began writing as a child of six or seven years old and quickly discovered I didn't know many words and those I did know, I couldn't spell..." Enjoy!

Where is everyone?
I'm feeling very lonely again, where are all my fellow bloggers?
Last week after I finished Myst III, I did various essential house chores including packing up some rooms or at least thinking about packing up some rooms :-)
This weekend was very lazy, I did almost nothing other than visiting people. We watched Gods and Monsters at Maggie and Andrew's - good movie! Friday night I went over to Irene's and met her new kitten, black and white and full of mischief! She introduced me to celestial seasonings english toffee tea, it's amazing! I have to find some! Today I am going to get a few groceries and perhaps finally check out the new home hardware that opened down on St Antoine.
Good news! I heard from E on Friday. They have one of the two signatures that they need to hire me. The other signature is apparently the easy one, so I may know something by mid-week!

Myst III - finished!
Yay! I finished Myst III last night. The ending was a bit disappointing for me, it's over.... sigh. I'm probably going to run through it again for fun. Today I'm packing up some of the stuff in the livingroom. I'm not sure where we're going to put everything from the four rooms that need to be cleared for the plasterer to do his thing. Looks like it's back to chaos for a few months! I'd like to paint the livingroom first and then move on to the offices and get some shelves up. I'm still not sure what colours to use for the dens and the diningroom. We had some snow yesterday, so pretty! January has been relatively mild and snow-free. Some of the kids from the school next door took advantage of the fresh snow to write some particularly unacademic words on my car, little bastards!

We have shelves!
We got a lot accomplished this weekend. We went out to Reno Depot and found 9 foot lengths of maple laminate shelving for $8 each and bought some brackets. Then, we came home and put them up, they look amazing! Sunday, I put up other shelves that we already owned while Steve organized some stuff and then we put up books. We managed to get about half of the books that we own into the tv room, not bad at all considering how many we have. The rest will have to wait until we have another room done, probably my office. We will be putting up shelves in the livingroom as well. The tv room now looks lived in, kind of homey with all the books up. Friday night we saw Monsters Inc., what a great movie! The animated little girl was cuter than anything. We've been wanting to see it for awhile. I didn't hear from you-know-who on Friday, arghh! It would have been nice to start work this week. Oh well, perhaps this week I will have better news. There's still an awful lot to get done at the apartment and many puzzles left to solve in Myst III. I'm still stuck on one of the ages.

There is definitely something not working right with the Blog. The postings are on a lengthy delay time for some reason.

Dina: As for your experience with Canadian Tire, I think it sucks that you had to point out to the "nice guy" that you couldn't replace the battery in the parking lot. However, he redeemed himself by helping you and he deserves a nice note to his boss. However, Canadian Tire deserves a smack on the head for overall lousy service and a lousy product.

Of batteries and men
I realised that I had not written about the whole battery problem after I posted the battery thing a few days ago. I bought a new battery from Canadian Tire at the end of October and my dad and I installed it the next time I went up to the townies. I didn't want to get stuck somewhere with a dead battery in the middle of winter. Before we left for Windsor, I put my car into the heated garage space that I rent for the winters to avoid shovelling. As everyone in Montreal knows, winter can be beautiful and a pain in the behind when it comes to snow. The actual snow isn't bad, it's the street plows that pile snow up on one side of your car and the sidewalk plows that pile up snow on the other. Some days, I have had to shovel out my car when the snow is up to the windows and packed under the car like cement. So, the car is in the garage for four days. The day after we returned, I walked up to the garage to get the car out and go to Maggie's for a visit and the car was dead. The car wouldn't even turn over, lights didn't work. The battery that I purchased has one free boost included ( I thought that it was unlimited until I read the fine print), so I called and a guy came and boosted the car, it started right up. I went back to the Canadian Tire and they tested the battery and it looked fine. I ran the car for another week and a half with no problems. A few days ago I left the car out in front of my apartment for two days and guess what? Yup, the car wouldn't start again. This time, the battery was only partially dead. My neighbour gave me a boost and advised me to get the battery replaced, I probably got a bad one. I went back to the store and the guy behind the counter said that he would exchange the battery, but I had to get it out of the car, bring it into the store and he would give me another. I explained that I bought the battery at the end of October so I wouldn't have to replace the battery in their parking lot in the cold and that I didn't have any tools with me to change it. I also pointed out that I paid good money for the battery and didn't think it was fair that their garage wanted to charge me to change it. In the end, the nice guy behind the counter put on his coat and helped me change the battery himself even though he didn't have to. Guess who's going to get a very nice thank you letter mailed to his boss and the head office of Canadian Tire? It pays to expect good service once and a while.

There was a nice cheque in the mail for me this morning, my first EI money! Yay! Life is good and I can buy groceries! You know who called to apologize for the delay, hopefully I'll have an answer one way or the other by Friday! Everyone keep your fingers crossed :-) I got into the car last night and the battery was acting up again, time to go back the the Canadian Tire and demand a new battery, this one is obviously defective. Luckily, my neighbour was out walking his dogs so he gave me a boost.

Sucked into Myst again.....
Scott got me Myst III - Exile for Christmas, and once again I'm addicted. When I got Myst years ago, I played almost non-stop until I finished it. Riven, the sequel to Myst, wasn't as enchanting and I was actually strong enough to put the darn thing away and just play once and a while when I had some spare time. I'm not sure if it's because I'm not working, but here I am again, spending hours trying to solve the puzzles. I have already solved one of the worlds, I believe that there are five in total, and have been wandering around the second trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do. The puzzles are a bit more difficult and the worlds are beautiful. There's also the added feature of being able to turn 360 degrees with your mouse, certainly less of a hassle than clicking, although sometimes I find myself a bit disoriented. They also seem to have built a clock into the game, because if you play in one world long enough, it seems to turn into night and then back into day, perhaps I'm imagining that. Anyway, I'm hooked again dagnabbit!

Hanging things on the walls
Yesterday I started putting things on the finished walls. I started with the coatrack from my old apartment, looks very nice against the red wall. Next, I put up six small prints of scenes of London that Steve's folks picked up on their honeymoon in England. I lined them up in two rows of three in the hallway, I think they look "smashing" :-) Today, I'm putting up a letter rack and perhaps a few shelves. Still no word from you know who..... boo hoo!!

I don't make resolutions, although I do have some improvements (personal renovations) that I would like to accomplish this year. We'll see if they get done :-)
The biggest thing that happened in 2001, and my most memorable to date, was getting married to my lovely husband Steve. It was a fantastic year!!!!
On other notes, still haven't heard from the company that wanted me to start working Jan 7. I think that I will call them today and find out what the heck's going on.

Hey ho everyone and a happy new year! The holiday was very busy, lots of travelling and eating and cheer. I am calling this past Christmas holiday my year of fleece. We drove up to my folks on the 24th, visited a bit and went to see Caroline's folks. It was great to see them and we had a nice time sitting around the huge fireplace and yakking. Caroline called while we were there, so we got to chat a bit as well. After that, we drove over to my grandmother's house (over the river and through the woods) and had snacks and a bit of cheer and exchanged gifts. Steve and I got many good things: a Far Side calendar, a cookie jar, some towels, candy and fleece sheets. We got home late and woke up at a decent hour and then opened Christmas gifts at home. The folks loved their bread machine, they can't wait to get started making their own bread. Steve was very excited about the new game that I got him as well. I got a warm, snuggly fleece robe from Steve and the folks got us a lot of stuff: socks, fleece sweaters, a couple of blankets, tool boxes, booze, a really nice box that my mom painted and a few odd things. Steve got a remote controlled car and I got this bear on a stand that plays cheesy sax and moves. After that, we had a big turkey lunch and napped. The slide show started that evening. The folks filled the carousels that we picked up for them and the slides didn't seem to be in any order. There was a lot of "I don't remember this" and "where were we when that was taken?" going on. This was a bit time-consuming because then the folks would spend a whole heap of time trying to figure out the details. The next day we got up and lazed around and then packed up and left. Leaving is always hard. We got back to our place and the cats were happy to see us. We unpacked and then repacked for the journey to Windsor the next day. We got up very early and got to the train for the 11 hour trip. The usual sleeping and reading and me getting antsy because I hate sitting for long periods of time. Finally, we were in Windsor and we opened gifts (I got a fleece jacket, a sanding mouse, Myst III, nice coasters and many other goodies) and hung out. We went to see Lord of the Rings the next evening and went to the mall the next day for a quick tour. Soon it was time to leave there as well. I spent most of the trip back sleeping or reading. I whacked my knee on Scott's car just before we got on the train and by the time we got to Montreal I could barely bend the darn thing. We had two parties to go to and were so very tired. We decided not to go out and fell asleep at 7. At 10:30, two of Steve's friends showed up at the door because they thought that the party was at our place! We got up to see in the new year and then went back to bed, we're such party animals!

Many good things happened to me in 2001. Perhaps the biggest and most surprising was that my husband and I bought a house. We didn't think we were going to, and suddenly there we were! As a result, however, the latter part of the year was so incredibly hectic I don't even remember much of it. Although maybe my memory lapse is due to the Twin Towers attack. I don't know.
As for resolutions, I don't really make them, but I want to change two things this year: I want to keep my 2-day-a-week job from encroaching on my home life; and I want to do more for others, like volunteer and do more for charity. Anyone else want to share their year andor resolutions?

Happy New Year!!!

This blog has been a little quiet due to the holidays and I thought it could use an entry on this last day of 2001. I think that we could all agree on one thing, it has been an interesting and a memorable year. I don't think that there is one member of this blog for whom something good didn't happen...(I think we all had at least one good thing happen this year even if you can't remember what that was.)

Anybody got any resolutions they want to share? You realize that if you own a dog you are more likely to make New Year's resolutions than if you own a cat? (There was an article about that in the National Post last week.) I own both so I guess I'll be spending the next few days in a state of complete confusion trying to decide whether or not to make a resolution. So for the cat owners out there, I guess you're "purrfect" anyway. For those who are catless and dogless are you in a no man's land or do you not care?

So on that note I wish everybody on this blog a very Happy New Year and all the best in 2002!

P.S. I saw the Harry Potter movie over the weekend and really enjoyed it. Anybody seen Lord of the Rings yet?

Merry Christmas!!
It's Friday and I'm sure no one is really getting very much work done today. I'm heading downtown to meet the old CDS crew for lunch, I'm looking forward to it!! I thought that I finished my shopping yesterday, but I just found out that there's a gift that will be doubled, so I'm heading back to the store to find something else-drat, I wrapped it too!! Better to find out now than later. Jim has agreed to feed the cats in our absence. It's slightly more of a big deal because now he has to leave the building and walk down the street to do us this favour-thanks Jim, you rock! We ordered some food last night, and the delivery guy commented on the great paint job we've done so far, he noticed! It's certainly a shot in the confidence arm-way to go us!
I still haven't received a firm confirmation from the company about my job, but if everything goes right, I should be starting January 7, cross your fingers everyone. Still have some stuff to do this morning, so I better get to it.

Headhunter is insane
I blogged this, but it seems to have disappeared with my slow connection! The hh sent me an email yesterday that seemed to imply some sort of plot by the interviewing company to steal people from him and this morning he wrote to tell me that he had sent a letter to Toronto STC informing them of this company's low hourly rates. Irene came over last night and we were talking about this crazy guy. When I told her his name she started laughing. He was an employee at Nortel who was fired because he was nuts, Irene said that he's creepy too. After he was fired, he called all his coworkers for weeks asking if they knew why this had happened. I sent off an email to him telling him that I found a job and requesting that I be removed from his files. This should avoid all that nasty calling and emailing that may have occurred if I told him to get lost because he's insane.
I got a call yesterday from the other company that I interviewed with, looks like I may be working there come January......:-)
Steve was on the radio! Steve and Bill were on Homerun yesterday afternoon talking about Lord of the Rings. They both sounded very good, I'm so proud!

Christmas delicacies
Tired of cholesterol-clogging turkey and gravy for Christmas? Slate magazine has a highly amusing article on alternative meat products. In it, the writer describes a dinner party held for friends in which only meat substitutes were served, culminating in the pièce de resistance, Tofurkey. Judging by the guests' reactions, it was not an overwhelming success. I'll stick to dark meat and bread stuffing, thanks.

Maybe Your Headhunter Would do Better Hunting Shrunken Heads..
This headhunter really sounds like a complete idiot. The way he operates I doubt even if he has a legitimate contract with the company who hired him to do the searching. Since when is it up to the applicant to ask for a second intereview. Doesn't the interviewing company usually decide that in concert with the head hunter? Are you sure this guy is a real headhunter and not some basement psycho who is playing office--he has a computer, a fax and a telephone. Sheesh!

I think Dina you could show him a thing or two, but I wouldn't bother. Why help him when he clearly isn't helping you (or anyone else for that matter)?

But, then you know what I think of headhunters...a pretty yucky species all round. Did I ever tell you my sister-in-law was in this dubious trade? I certainly never got a sense that she knew what she was talking about, except for her commissions.

How many more shopping days?
The holiday shopping is almost complete. The gifts that we are giving are not half as fun as Elizabeth's tacky gift exchange, but I think that everyone will like them anyway. I'm planning on heading to Club Price to price a gift for my folks, gotta get the best deal! My favorite tacky gift is a ceramic piece given to my Dad one Christmas. It's a native american and horse, the faces blended together and painted in browns and blacks. It has to be the ugliest thing that I have ever seen. The year after my Dad received it (it normally stays hidden under a bed), he wrapped it up and gave it to me. Since then, it's become a tradition in my family to give the indian head back and forth. The trick is that when you receive it, you must look as surprised and happy as possible. I wonder who's going to get it this year?
More stupidity from the headhunter: I received an email from this twit asking if I had been called for a second interview (in fact, I received two identical emails). Apparently, the other writer may have been asked for a second interview and since the headhunter wasn't informed he's ready to contact lawyers, etc, etc. What a tangled web.......

Yet another gift exchange...

What do you get an 8-year-old for her class gift exchange? Why, a whoopee cushion, of course! Simple minds, simple pleasures... : )

Naughty and nice
We had our office Christmas on Friday and it was great fun as well. We went to a place called Le St-Augustin (on rue St-Augustin, in the town of St-Augustin!). The food was wonderful. I had marinated salmon, then rabbit, and the others mostly went for the bavette. We were thoroughly spoiled with plenty of good wine and port and incredible cheese plates and desserts.

The best part of the evening, though, was the tacky gift exchange. Among the presents were:

- A bottle of Aqua Velva and silky boxer shorts for one of our Italian studs
- A ceramic Spanish cow for our Spanish translator (hee! hee!)
- Gummy boobs and a rock-climbing rappel line made out of paper clips (very crafty, Rosy!)
- Aspirin and ear plugs for our veep of Marketing who suffers through the President's rants
- Flavoured body lotion (my gift, very nice)
- Sexy dice (shake, shake, roll.... Kiss + Lips)
- A chocolate phallus.

But it was all in good fun and everybody seemed to really enjoy it.

So now you know what's on everybody's mind at Paradox. Sooner or later, the conversation always turns to sex.

Snow!
We had some lovely snow for the weekend, our first true snow this winter. It seems a bit odd to have it now that it's here, I think that everyone had kind of gotten used to bare roads and not wearing boots in December. First snows are magical, everything covered all white and pretty. I was reminded that I never did dump the dirt out of the tomato pots, oh well.
It has also managed to turn seasonably cool, but hardly arctic. I imagine that people will be out in force this week doing the x-mas shopping that they've been putting off. We went on a brief trip to the mall this weekend and it was horrible. I vowed to get the shopping in during the days this week to avoid all the crowds and nonsense. Steve's office party was Saturday night at a restaurant called Profusion. I had a great filet mignon and as usual his company was very generous. Every employee received their choice of wine, port, or chocolate (pre-arranged) and then they had a raffle where every employee received a gift. Steve won movie money. One of the guys who won a DVD player last year won another this year much to everyone's dismay. Kathy came over Sunday afternoon for a cappuccino and some cookies. We sat in the livingroom with a fire on and had a nice blab. Today, I have much baking and errands. Better get to it!

Bizarre but fortunate
I went to the interview yesterday and discovered that the company isn't looking for a tech writer! It's a small company of maybe 15 people run by an older Swiss man. Very nice guy, he showed me around the back, let me play with the lasers and answered my questions. The headhunter said that the owner's name was Theodor, his name is Walter. He told the owner that my name was Diane. Walter apologized for having me come to an interview for a position that he doesn't need. He interviewed a woman earlier in the day who wanted 70k/year! That must have taken an extreme amount of stupidity because anyone who walked in could easily see that the owner doesn't make that much. He told me that he's looking for someone to redo the Web site and create some brochures. I have decided to try to help him because I like him. I'm going to try to get some people together who can do the work for modest amounts of money and make it possible for Walter and his employees to alter the material as things change. This may mean working in PageMaker (that's what they seem to use), but I think that I know enough talented people to make this happen.
Sometimes fate just brings you to certain people and I think this is one of those times when I should listen and follow the path.

I have a job interview today at 1pm. The headhunter sent me the email address and I can honestly say that I've never seen a worse site. It's not just that the site is ugly and gives nearly no information about the company, it is also littered with spelling mistakes and inconsistencies. Ick! I'm going anyways, perhaps they're willing to pay me a small fortune to create their documentation. I can certainly think of a couple of graphic designers who could redesign their site. Had a great lunch yesterday and had a visit with some of my old coworkers, many of whom seemed pleased to see me. I heard about the Silanis x-mas party, apparently all the food was covered in mustard sauce and there were sparse door prizes mostly consisting of chocolate. Sounds like a reat time. You'd think that if a company decided to hold their x-mas party at there office to save a few bucks that they could at least give something extra to the employees. Still no word yet about the contract, let's hope that I hear something soon!

O Brother!
I've just spent all day listening to the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? It's a wonderful trip back in time to Depression-era music, with bluegrass, folk, spirituals and even a little chain-gang music. The harmonies are beautiful and the lyrics are simple and from the heart. Now I know just what to give my Dad.

Free time is a rare element
There's nothing like a mid-week day off to remind you how rare and unstable free time is. You think you have a lot ahead of you and then it steadily fritters away into meaningless errands. Part One: I spent part of the morning yesterday at a nearby sex shop looking for a gift for the office gift exchange (theme: Un P'tit Cadeau Quétaine). After staring at dildos, crotchless panties, and all manner of tasteless, tacky items, I settled on a large chocolate penis for my gift mate who is a certified chocoholic. Not very subtle, but sure to be appreciated among the low-brow crowd at work. Part Two: Went to the dermatologist, which was mercifully short. Part Three: Sat in the waiting room at the Mazda dealer while they verified the Check Engine light on my car for the umpteenth time. Grrrrrrrr. At least I got out in the morning to enjoy the beautiful sunshine while throwing the frisbee around for Chili at a nearby park. So enjoy your free time while you have it, Dina. And good luck with your prospects!

Wow Wednesday
The headhunter from Toronto emailed me yesterday, apparently a client in Dorval wants me to interview Thursday. I explained that I was waiting to hear back about another offer, but that I'd go out of interest. The company makes lasers or something and doesn't have a tech writer. I'm meeting with them Thursday at 1pm. I'm still a bit amazed that they are looking for a tech writer in Montreal through a headhunter in Toronto, I'll have to ask them about that. I went back to my secret place of gifts yesterday and they didn't have half the interesting things as last week, I guess that you have to get there early during the sale. It's definitely something to keep in mind for next year. So, how's everyone else doing with there Christmas preparations? I seem to be the only one posting (I'm so lonely!). Steve's work Christmas party is this Saturday night at some restaurant downtown. Last year, it was at this fantastic French place on the plateau, the food was amazing and every employee got one gift, they had a few big things and then smaller gifts (certificates, booze, etc.). Steve got a great bottle of champagne. I'm hoping that they are as generous this year. I have to email some people at my old work and find out how their party went, I'll be really upset if everyone got a 1000 bonus :-(
Today I'm having lunch with Tamu and running a few errands. After that it's back home to do some more cleaning and organizing, always lots to do!

Oops!
I forgot to disconnect the internet connection last night, Steve discovered that the phone was still connected this morning as he was leaving for work. Doh! I missed a call from the folks. I went to check my account at my ISP's Web site and found out that I only have 278 hours left this month, horrors!
We watched Wonder Boys last night, Michael Douglas, who I don't normally like, was very good. Great movie, I recommend it. We had a nice fire, it's so cozy. I went out and had my car treated with the anti-rust mineral oil yesterday. The fun part about it is braking after it's done. A bit of oil tends to get on the brakes pads, so sometimes you don't stop as quickly as you should. It's also fun to watch them spray the car, you watch them through a big window. Some of the cars that are being treated are not the best advertisements of the treatment. I saw this old station wagon that was severely rust-eaten, perhaps the guy was attempting to keep the car from falling apart until the end of the winter.
Today I am getting a few things organized and then going out with Irene to a new Christmas shopping sale that someone told me about. Top secret! That's the problem with new shopping haunts, you want to tell your friends about them, but if you do then they know how cheap their gifts were :-)

Monday, wheee!
Now just how often do you see that? Not many people are saying that this morning, but I'm quite happy with the day so far. Steve isn't. He was gaming last night until 2am and didn't sleep well. Poor guy! This weekend was good and busy. Saturday I slept in a bit and we sat down and did our thank you cards! Whew! If it wasn't for Steve, we'd never have gotten them done. If you were one of the people near the end, you may see something like this: "Thank you for the lovely gift, my hand is falling off, send a masseuse!" Many of them will be mailed off today. I'm still working on a few. Sunday we went for breakfast and then came home and I put up shelves while Steve addressed cards. I went over to Maggie's to visit with Andrew's sister Nicky because she's leaving to go back to England today. She and her husband-type guy Adam are working on a book. They were approached by a big publishing company and asked to write a book about there journey from city dwellers to their current idyllic life in the Cotswolds training horses. I'm looking forward to reading it, they're wonderful people.
Oh! I forgot all about Friday and my trip to the employment office, the lesson to be learned is always check where you're going if you haven't been there for 6 years. I went to where I thought the office was, well it was there the last time I needed to go, why would it move? Ha ha! It moved and I ended up going through the phone book and discovering that the new office was much closer to my house! Ugh!

Friday!
I'm actually keeping track of the days! I did a bit of x-mas shopping after the interview, stopped by Silanis and picked up my ROE, and then went home and attempted to clean up a bit. I didn't get very far, but now you can almost walk into the dining room without tripping over a paint can or roller. Today I am going to the employment office to wait forever in line and fill out papers in the hope of getting some money from them some day. Should be fun!

The interview went well and I'm pleased to say that no lunatic HR people or strange writers appear to be involved in this contract. I will probably find out next week. There's a lot of work, but overtime has never bothered me when I'm paid by the hour and the people seem very nice. You also can't beat the working environment. The only hitch is that they may want me to start this month and I kind of had my heart set on taking December off. Perhaps if it's only to get things organized for a couple of days, I know that they don't work during the holiday week.

If I were a work of art, I would be Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night. I am a tiny village at peace while overhead rages the tumult of the heavens. Objects whirl and flash around me in a fevered haze only partially reflected in reality while I remain grounded and secure in my isolation. Which work of art would you be? The Art Test

Where did everybody go?
I haven't seen a fellow blogger here for a few days.... I'm starting to get lonely.
The first coat of red paint in the entranceway looked like all first coats of red paint-absolute crap. The second coat I did yesterday looks much nicer, but I'll have to do a third today. At least I now know that I'll have to tint the primer when we do the livingroom. I decided to give the paint finishes a miss and leave the lower part of the hallway alone. I think that it will look good as soon as I get the mouldings up. All the colours tie in very nicely so far. The red is amazing and makes the ceilings look really high (ok, they are high, maybe higher?).
Good news!
I have an interview for a contract position Thursday. I am not at liberty to mention the name, but it is the place where I have twice been deemed unexceptable for rather bizarre reasons. Wish me luck!

What do I want to do today?
It's Monday and I am not at work! Yippee! I got up with Steve and had breakfast and am drinking some coffee to prepare for the big painting job I have ahead of me. This weekend we managed to prime the walls in the hallway, paint the ceiling and put on the first coat of paint. Today, I'm going to put on the second coat and put on the first coat of red on the entranceway. I am a little uncertain about the darker colour that I'm using in the hallway. It's nice, but seems a bit flat. I'm thinking about doing a paint finish with a darker colour, maybe ragging or something, to give it a bit of depth. We'll see what it looks like when the second coat dries. So far, this not working thing is pretty good.