So this week we have a Texas Hold'em Poker tournament at work (for charity). Being an occasional poker player, I registered, just to see what it would be like. On the weekend we had a few friends over and had a friendly game, which was good practice. I was still feeling a little hesitant about it, given that I had never really played according to the official Texas Hold'em rules. For example, when we play with friends, we always play that Aces are high, so a hand of A-2-3-4-5 would not be a straight. But in the official rules, it is.
So Monday afternoon rolls around, and I head to the cafeteria, where the tournament takes place. A few of my coworkers were coming with me, but when we drew our table numbers, we were all located at different tables. There were 20 tables, with pretty much 10 players each - for a total of 197 players! Imagine my surprise when I found out that one of the guys at my table was a good friend who we play poker with regularly. It made me feel better to have a friendly face at my table, as I was still a little worried about not being able to keep up with all those serious looking poker players. But then something happened. I was getting really good hands (2-pairs, A-K flushes, etc). After the first half hour, I was the person with the most chips at the table ;) When you have that many chips, it makes it easier and easier to bluff people off, and I should have taken advantage of that. But I was playing a little timidly, and in the end that cost me the game. I finished a respectable 4th at our table, but only the top 2 advanced. My friend finished first, so he advanced to the Tuesday round, where he was eliminated as well (by a hand with three 8).
So my Texas hold'em carreer at the work tournament was pretty short lived, but I am determined to learn from my mistakes and do better next year. I still have some memorization to do, as I sometimes confuse the ranking of hands, and I have to hone my bluffing skills. But overall I had a blast, and I am definitely going back in next year. Though I still can't imagine playing this for real money (not the nickel-ante we play at home).
In other news, this week marks the start of the JA Company Program in Ottawa. This is a program I have volounteered with over the last 4 years. It's a program ran for high-school students to give them some exposure to the world of business. The idea is to setup, run and take down an actual company. They have to come up with a product or service, create a production line, a marketing strategy, produce and sell the product, and hopefully come out of the whole process having generated some profit. They get exposed to the concept of break-even point, capitalization, share price, commissions etc. At the same time, they get to learn about leadership, teamwork, competition and such things. And they need some volounteers to introduce the program to them and serve as resources while they run the company. For more information about the program, you can go to the Ottawa JA page. This week we met with the students at our designated high school, and did some introductions, and next week we will be trying to settle on a product. I'll keep you posted on how that goes :)
TTFN,
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Friday, September 22, 2006
More work critters
Ok, so things are pretty busy, and I don't have all that much to say (no time for idle musings), but I thought I could at least post a few pictures again. This time, it's little chipmunks that we see around work. A coworker fed this little one a bit of his chocolate danish... Apologies for the quality of the pictures, they were again taken with my PDA/cellphone thingy...
It's already Friday, and next week starts the busy season. I will have something going on every day of the week until February or so. Volounteer work with Junior Achievement, choir, volleyball, yoga twice a week. Surprisingly enough, I am looking forward to it all (I guess otherwise I would really be a masochist...). But it will make the weekends that much more precious :)
Ta ta,
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Musings (or is that whining?)
Ok, so this has been bothering me for a while, I think I have to get it off my chest. I religiously follow our friends' blog about the twin girls from China (see our China blog). Anyway, it's really an interesting read, and I check it often (sometimes a few times a day) to see if there are any updates.
Well, this weekend, a surprising conversation followed the hilarious entry on the blog. I have to take exception to that conversation. It's still bothering me a little (yes, I know, I have no life!).
First of all, note to self: never call anyone an idiot in your blog, it may upset some people (I blame that one on mommy-brain). Just because some people decide to make choices in life that are different than what you would choose, doesn't mean they need to be insulted for it.
Here's what I take exception to: the concept that "equality" in a marriage means the man doing everything that the wife does, or more (equally splitting all chores and duties). I am not a parent, so I understand that I am not all that qualified to comment on the roles of mothers vs fathers and all that, (even though I've spend the last week interacting with new parents, and analyzing what they do and how it works for them). But I get really annoyed with the whole premise that a full partnership must involve a full 50-50 split on all responsibilities. Just as I get annoyed when people say "cooking is a woman's job", or "a man has to make more money than his wife". To me, these are two extremes in the spectrum, neither of them very healthy. My philosophy is one of sharing responsibilities and duties according to abilities (maintaining an eye on fairness obviously). Maybe the husband who doesn't take care of poopy diapers is a hard working surgeon, who brings in lots of money so that his wife can stay at home and take care of the kids and the house (and maybe she even enjoys it-g*d forbid!). Or maybe the partnership is such that the husband takes care of the outside of the house, and the wife of the inside.
And sometimes what happens is that the roles that were defined earlier on in the relationship don't seem appropriate anymore, and that's when one of the partners may start to wonder "how can I get my partner to change xyz". Doesn't mean that the original arrangement was bad, it's just that people change. You can't always prepare for what the future holds.
Personally, for example, I love cooking. So it only makes sense that I would be the cook for our family (not because I am "the woman", but because I like to cook). DH does all the dishes, though (I wish I could say it's because he likes, but in this case it's more a case of the fairness thing). We share most of the other housework almost 50-50 I would say. It works for us, but I am sure there are plenty of couples for whom it wouldn't work at all. I know plenty of men who are excellent cooks, and plenty of women who dislike cooking for example :)
Anyway. gotta go! It was good to get this off my chest...
Well, this weekend, a surprising conversation followed the hilarious entry on the blog. I have to take exception to that conversation. It's still bothering me a little (yes, I know, I have no life!).
First of all, note to self: never call anyone an idiot in your blog, it may upset some people (I blame that one on mommy-brain). Just because some people decide to make choices in life that are different than what you would choose, doesn't mean they need to be insulted for it.
Here's what I take exception to: the concept that "equality" in a marriage means the man doing everything that the wife does, or more (equally splitting all chores and duties). I am not a parent, so I understand that I am not all that qualified to comment on the roles of mothers vs fathers and all that, (even though I've spend the last week interacting with new parents, and analyzing what they do and how it works for them). But I get really annoyed with the whole premise that a full partnership must involve a full 50-50 split on all responsibilities. Just as I get annoyed when people say "cooking is a woman's job", or "a man has to make more money than his wife". To me, these are two extremes in the spectrum, neither of them very healthy. My philosophy is one of sharing responsibilities and duties according to abilities (maintaining an eye on fairness obviously). Maybe the husband who doesn't take care of poopy diapers is a hard working surgeon, who brings in lots of money so that his wife can stay at home and take care of the kids and the house (and maybe she even enjoys it-g*d forbid!). Or maybe the partnership is such that the husband takes care of the outside of the house, and the wife of the inside.
And sometimes what happens is that the roles that were defined earlier on in the relationship don't seem appropriate anymore, and that's when one of the partners may start to wonder "how can I get my partner to change xyz". Doesn't mean that the original arrangement was bad, it's just that people change. You can't always prepare for what the future holds.
Personally, for example, I love cooking. So it only makes sense that I would be the cook for our family (not because I am "the woman", but because I like to cook). DH does all the dishes, though (I wish I could say it's because he likes, but in this case it's more a case of the fairness thing). We share most of the other housework almost 50-50 I would say. It works for us, but I am sure there are plenty of couples for whom it wouldn't work at all. I know plenty of men who are excellent cooks, and plenty of women who dislike cooking for example :)
Anyway. gotta go! It was good to get this off my chest...
Back home
We made it back in one piece :) I've been procrastinating with the blog, mostly because of lack of time and opportunity. I only have a little bit of time, so I thought I'd just post a quick summary of the remainder of our trip.
The last two nights in Halifax we played cards with DH's Mom and her beau. We learned a new game called Push, and we had a lot of fun with it. We also played some cribbage, an old favourite. When Thursday rolled around, we didn't really feel like leaving. But we had to go if we wanted to get a chance to meet up with friends on the way, and make it home in time for the Opera on Saturday (wouldn't want to miss the Barber of Seville!).
And so we left Halifax on Thursday morning. Uncharacteristically, we had had good weather all week, and this was another gorgeous day. Our first stop was in Fredericton, where we met up with a high-school friend of DH's. I had never met her before, so it was nice to finally put a face to the name. We had a nice chat at Timmies, and went on our merry way. Oh, before we got to Fredericton, we stopped at Magnetic Hill in Moncton... What a big disappointment that is! I'd been warned about it, but wanted to see it for myself. Unless you have kids and you will be going to the Zoo and associated other amusements in the area, I consider it a waste of the 5$ admission fee. At least it didn't cost us all that much time, since it is right off the highway :)
Leaving Fredericton we weren't sure how far we would go. But with the low volumes of traffic and nice weather we just kept on going and going, until all of a sudden it started getting dark in a hurry. We stopped at a Mike's for supper, and ended up spending the night in the beautiful town of Kamouraska, made famous by a 1973 novel that was part of our mandatory reading material in high-school. It's a very pretty town, with apparently an abundance of picturesque sunsets, as you can see on their homepage.
Friday morning, we had a nice breakfast at the local greasy spoon, and headed out to Quebec City. That's where we met up with my friend A whose baby J is only a month old. That's her in the picture on the left. Isn't she precious? A and her husband just moved to Quebec City this summer, and they are renting a beautiful condo with breathtaking views. It was really a lot of fun to see where they live, and to meet baby J. We've only seen A once in the last 3 years, and that was at her wedding, so it was nice to have a few hours to catch up and just chat.
From QC we headed straight for Montreal, where we stayed overnight with my family. After brunch, we headed for home. We spent the rest of the weekend catching up on chores (laundry, cleanup and the dreaded yardwork), having dinner with friends, going to the Opera, you know, just the usual stuff ;) Then on Monday it was back to work...
And that's how our Halifax trip ended. In all likelihood, this will be our last trip this year, since we've already taken 4 weeks of vacation :) But certainly next year we will have some more travel adventures!
Later!
The last two nights in Halifax we played cards with DH's Mom and her beau. We learned a new game called Push, and we had a lot of fun with it. We also played some cribbage, an old favourite. When Thursday rolled around, we didn't really feel like leaving. But we had to go if we wanted to get a chance to meet up with friends on the way, and make it home in time for the Opera on Saturday (wouldn't want to miss the Barber of Seville!).
And so we left Halifax on Thursday morning. Uncharacteristically, we had had good weather all week, and this was another gorgeous day. Our first stop was in Fredericton, where we met up with a high-school friend of DH's. I had never met her before, so it was nice to finally put a face to the name. We had a nice chat at Timmies, and went on our merry way. Oh, before we got to Fredericton, we stopped at Magnetic Hill in Moncton... What a big disappointment that is! I'd been warned about it, but wanted to see it for myself. Unless you have kids and you will be going to the Zoo and associated other amusements in the area, I consider it a waste of the 5$ admission fee. At least it didn't cost us all that much time, since it is right off the highway :)
Leaving Fredericton we weren't sure how far we would go. But with the low volumes of traffic and nice weather we just kept on going and going, until all of a sudden it started getting dark in a hurry. We stopped at a Mike's for supper, and ended up spending the night in the beautiful town of Kamouraska, made famous by a 1973 novel that was part of our mandatory reading material in high-school. It's a very pretty town, with apparently an abundance of picturesque sunsets, as you can see on their homepage.
Friday morning, we had a nice breakfast at the local greasy spoon, and headed out to Quebec City. That's where we met up with my friend A whose baby J is only a month old. That's her in the picture on the left. Isn't she precious? A and her husband just moved to Quebec City this summer, and they are renting a beautiful condo with breathtaking views. It was really a lot of fun to see where they live, and to meet baby J. We've only seen A once in the last 3 years, and that was at her wedding, so it was nice to have a few hours to catch up and just chat.
From QC we headed straight for Montreal, where we stayed overnight with my family. After brunch, we headed for home. We spent the rest of the weekend catching up on chores (laundry, cleanup and the dreaded yardwork), having dinner with friends, going to the Opera, you know, just the usual stuff ;) Then on Monday it was back to work...
And that's how our Halifax trip ended. In all likelihood, this will be our last trip this year, since we've already taken 4 weeks of vacation :) But certainly next year we will have some more travel adventures!
Later!
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
More visiting
So our stay in Halifax is coming to an end... Yesterday we spent some time on the town, and today I went back to visit with the niece and nephew. Had a chance to snap a few more adorable pictures :)
The kids were taking a bath again, so we have lots of towel-hooded shots :) The last shot that I am posting here is of our nephew doing one of his many adult impersonations, where he looks totally like a grownup stuck in a baby's body. He's so funny! He does smile a lot, but doesn't like to do it for the camera! As soon as my face disappears behind the cam, he gets this puzzled frown, wondering what's going on :) It's really funny to watch!
Anyway, that is it for the updates from Halifax. Tomorrow we're heading out, destination Fredericton and possibly beyond. Then the next day we should be able to stop in Quebec City to visit my friend with her newborn (more cute pictures!), then on to Montreal, where we will spend the night, and home on Saturday! I may not be able to update the blog until then!
Later,
Monday, September 11, 2006
Here are the pictures
So we did get to see the babies yesterday, and even scored some decent pictures. The first picture is DH with his nephew. Don't they look cute together? This morning I also dropped by to help out SIL a bit, though I'm not sure she really needed all that much help. She's very well organised, and seems to have everything under control. I guess you have to be when you are dealing with twins all day every day! I got to see both babies get a bath, and I gave both a bottle. They are so cute, though squirmy! I am amazed how interactive they are too, being only 3 months old. And they both have a great disposition. They seem to love to smile and giggle, and they don't cry or fuss for very long. 
The second picture is of my nephew after a bath. It sure seems like a lot of work, taking care of little twins. They take a while to eat, so it seems like at any time there's either one of them eating, being burped or being changed (and sometimes bathed). Luckily they seem to tag team quite a bit, so when one of them is eating or being fussy or something, the other one is sleeping :) But it also means that the parent in charge gets no respite at all, they have to stay on top of things all day. On the bright side, both kids seem to be sleeping trough the night by now, so that's nice. As long as SIL can get some help during the day, they should be fine. Everyone seems to have a decent routine going on :)
The last picture is my niece after the bath. She's got an infectious smile! If you can believe it, both babies actually seem to enjoy having a bath! They're getting to be too big for the little baby tub, they will soon have to be washed in the big tub, as they tend to splash all the water out onto the floor :D
Gigglingly yours,
Got here...
OK, so I'm a little late with this posting. I just couldn't get connected to the internet until now. I've composed an entry yesterday, though, so I am posting it now. Then I'll create another post with some pictures :)
So we made it to Halifax. We managed to make it all the way from Montreal to Halifax, and in pretty good time too. We managed to cover 1300km in 12 hours of driving, plus 1.5 hours of stops, including a full hour stop for sit-down supper. We still got here before 10pm, because we left Montreal at 7am :) There was really little traffic, but the weather was pretty crappy. It rained for the first 8 hours, at times a little, and sometimes pretty hard. The AWD of the car was pretty useful in the spots where water was accumulating in the ruts and causing us to aquaplane a little :)
Overall it was a very nice drive down. I drove the whole way (yay!), so it went pretty quickly, for me anyway. Saw lots of nice sights, but we were in a hurry so I never took out the camera to take any pictures. So you will just have to take my word for it :) But thanks to the PhatBox(tm) that we got installed on Friday, we had all our music with us, which was really great. We had been really missing having all our music at the touch of the finger. We didn't even realize how much we were missing it. Sounds a little silly, but we both like our music a lot! The weather here is really nice, and we're having lots of fun. Haven't seen the babies yet, but we're hoping to drop by today.
Ta-ta!
So we made it to Halifax. We managed to make it all the way from Montreal to Halifax, and in pretty good time too. We managed to cover 1300km in 12 hours of driving, plus 1.5 hours of stops, including a full hour stop for sit-down supper. We still got here before 10pm, because we left Montreal at 7am :) There was really little traffic, but the weather was pretty crappy. It rained for the first 8 hours, at times a little, and sometimes pretty hard. The AWD of the car was pretty useful in the spots where water was accumulating in the ruts and causing us to aquaplane a little :)
Overall it was a very nice drive down. I drove the whole way (yay!), so it went pretty quickly, for me anyway. Saw lots of nice sights, but we were in a hurry so I never took out the camera to take any pictures. So you will just have to take my word for it :) But thanks to the PhatBox(tm) that we got installed on Friday, we had all our music with us, which was really great. We had been really missing having all our music at the touch of the finger. We didn't even realize how much we were missing it. Sounds a little silly, but we both like our music a lot! The weather here is really nice, and we're having lots of fun. Haven't seen the babies yet, but we're hoping to drop by today.
Ta-ta!
Friday, September 08, 2006
Getting ready for our trip out East
Not even sure if I would call it a trip. It's more like a visit. We will try to get there as fast as possible, to allow us to spend as much time as possible with the family. Which to me is the opposite of a trip, where I usually take my time getting to where I am going :) And for the record, I like both trips and visits, so this differentiation is purely semantics :D I am really looking forward to seeing everyone and meeting the babies :) After all, they're my only niece and nephew (so far anyway)!
Of course being the crazy driving nut, I am also looking forward to the drive down and back. I really love driving around, especially with my DH. We can share the driving (which is really handy when you have to drive _all_ day), and we have really good conversations. I think having a forced captive audience appeals to me ;) But also having all this time on our hands, we get the chance to discuss things fully, taking every subject to the n-th level (where n is quite substantial). Leaving no leaf unturned :) I also find it very relaxing, as in a way I become the spectator, watching nature and life unfold before my eyes. We'll always spot an interesting animal on our way, or a funky car, or an interesting license plate. It's one big game of "I spy" ;)
Tonight we're only going as far as Montreal, where we will stay with my family. It means we get two hours of driving over with, we get to sleep in a place we're used to, and my Mom promised to make us sandwiches for the road! Doesn't get any better than that :) Plus my parents have high-speed, so we'll get a chance to do some surfing, and maybe even upload a few more pictures. It's painfully slow to upload the pictures at home, where we're still stuck in the 20th century with a 56K modem...
Later!
Of course being the crazy driving nut, I am also looking forward to the drive down and back. I really love driving around, especially with my DH. We can share the driving (which is really handy when you have to drive _all_ day), and we have really good conversations. I think having a forced captive audience appeals to me ;) But also having all this time on our hands, we get the chance to discuss things fully, taking every subject to the n-th level (where n is quite substantial). Leaving no leaf unturned :) I also find it very relaxing, as in a way I become the spectator, watching nature and life unfold before my eyes. We'll always spot an interesting animal on our way, or a funky car, or an interesting license plate. It's one big game of "I spy" ;)
Tonight we're only going as far as Montreal, where we will stay with my family. It means we get two hours of driving over with, we get to sleep in a place we're used to, and my Mom promised to make us sandwiches for the road! Doesn't get any better than that :) Plus my parents have high-speed, so we'll get a chance to do some surfing, and maybe even upload a few more pictures. It's painfully slow to upload the pictures at home, where we're still stuck in the 20th century with a 56K modem...
Later!
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Just another manic Wednesday
Not much to say today, so I thought I'd upload a few pictures we took a while ago with a friend's digital SLR (Rebel). The pictures were taken on the campus at work, where every spring we get to witness tons of little goslings running around. They are very very cute, but hard to get close to, as the Moms are very protective :)
This weekend we're heading to Halifax to visit DH's family. BIL and his wife are the proud parents of very cute twins, and we're going to meet them for the first time. Expect lots of cute baby pictures next week. On our way we will try to stop in Quebec City visit my friend who just had a baby as well, so that will hopefully mean more baby pictures :) Yes, I am obsessed, how can you tell?
In the meantime, though, we have lots of packing and trip prep to do. Better get going!
Bye!
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Another long weekend done...
So we had another long weekend. It was a good one, though we didn't get much rest. Saturday was spent driving around getting errands done, including grocery shopping and stereo shopping for our car. We're planning on driving to Halifax next week, and we were hoping to get our PhatNoise(tm) system installed in the car before we go. But we need two different cables (unfortunately VW cables don't work with the Audi decks), and a stereo shop to install the whole thing. It's a lot of hassle, and a fair amount of money too, but hopefully we only need to do it this once and we'll keep it like that for the next 10 years. I really hope so. We're so used to this system from the time we had a Passat, it is very user friendly and invaluable for long car trips. I think we have something like 5 days worth of music stored in the cartridge :) Makes it a lot easier to drive around, especially on those long hauls. We may try to get to Halifax straight from Montreal, which is a pretty long drive, so hopefully it will help us stay awake (if we get everything installed in time). We've been procrastinating on this because it is so expensive and complicated. In the Passat we were able to do the install ourselves, so that was a lot simpler...
On Sunday, we spent the day cleaning and cooking (and cleaning again), because we had some company over for dinner. It was really nice. There were 8 adults and 1 kid (my friend princess D). We only have 6 matching chairs, so some people had to sit on mismatched furniture, but aside from that I think the evening was a success. There was enough food to feed everyone, I remembered to serve the salad at the last minute, and the tart peach/apple pie I baked went very well with the *sweet* soy ice cream that I had bought. One of our friends is vegan, so I made the whole meal vegan (no meat, no dairy products, no eggs, you get the picture). It's challenging at times to come up with a menu that's vegan, and I hate to always serve the good old reliable "pasta with tomato sauce", so this time I made a vegan meatloaf :) I basically used the TVP (textured vegetable protein) instead of ground beef in my favourite meatloaf recipe, I omitted the eggs all together and added a bit of olive oil to moisten and flavour the whole thing. It must have turned out alright, since there were no leftovers :) I served the TVP-loaf with young potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli, and a tabouleh-type salad. I also made a leek and potato soup, and the aforementioned pie for dessert :)
One of the guys brought a friend with him, which is quite unusual. You see, this bunch is basically 5 guys who have known each other since pretty much kindergarden (DH's childhood friends), 2 spouses and 1 kid. We get together fairly regularly, but it's pretty much always the same lineup ;) So it was nice to have someone new join us, with new conversation and a fresh perspective. Most of us already know her from work, so it all felt very comfortable. Of course it helps that she's very nice and easy to get along with :) And we're also happy for our friend, who's had some bad luck with women in the past. To summarize, we had a very nice evening on Sunday.
On Monday we went out for brunch with DH's dad and aunt (FIL has been staying with her over the last few days). Again, a good time was had by all. I really like aunt E, she always has great stories to tell us, and she wanted to hear all about our China trip. So we shared trip stories and anecdotes until early afternoon, at which point we went back to work to do some more cleanup. We've started working on the computer room, and believe it or not, we can now actually see the floor :) There's still mountains of papers on the desk and all horizontal surfaces ;) but I have hope that we can get through the whole thing at some point... Maybe even before Christmas :D It's definitely a good activity to do when the weather is so dreary... It rained pretty much all weekend - thanks Ernesto!
Big hugs to everyone!
On Sunday, we spent the day cleaning and cooking (and cleaning again), because we had some company over for dinner. It was really nice. There were 8 adults and 1 kid (my friend princess D). We only have 6 matching chairs, so some people had to sit on mismatched furniture, but aside from that I think the evening was a success. There was enough food to feed everyone, I remembered to serve the salad at the last minute, and the tart peach/apple pie I baked went very well with the *sweet* soy ice cream that I had bought. One of our friends is vegan, so I made the whole meal vegan (no meat, no dairy products, no eggs, you get the picture). It's challenging at times to come up with a menu that's vegan, and I hate to always serve the good old reliable "pasta with tomato sauce", so this time I made a vegan meatloaf :) I basically used the TVP (textured vegetable protein) instead of ground beef in my favourite meatloaf recipe, I omitted the eggs all together and added a bit of olive oil to moisten and flavour the whole thing. It must have turned out alright, since there were no leftovers :) I served the TVP-loaf with young potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli, and a tabouleh-type salad. I also made a leek and potato soup, and the aforementioned pie for dessert :)
One of the guys brought a friend with him, which is quite unusual. You see, this bunch is basically 5 guys who have known each other since pretty much kindergarden (DH's childhood friends), 2 spouses and 1 kid. We get together fairly regularly, but it's pretty much always the same lineup ;) So it was nice to have someone new join us, with new conversation and a fresh perspective. Most of us already know her from work, so it all felt very comfortable. Of course it helps that she's very nice and easy to get along with :) And we're also happy for our friend, who's had some bad luck with women in the past. To summarize, we had a very nice evening on Sunday.
On Monday we went out for brunch with DH's dad and aunt (FIL has been staying with her over the last few days). Again, a good time was had by all. I really like aunt E, she always has great stories to tell us, and she wanted to hear all about our China trip. So we shared trip stories and anecdotes until early afternoon, at which point we went back to work to do some more cleanup. We've started working on the computer room, and believe it or not, we can now actually see the floor :) There's still mountains of papers on the desk and all horizontal surfaces ;) but I have hope that we can get through the whole thing at some point... Maybe even before Christmas :D It's definitely a good activity to do when the weather is so dreary... It rained pretty much all weekend - thanks Ernesto!
Big hugs to everyone!
Friday, September 01, 2006
Animals at work (redux)
Here's a few more shots of the groundhogs around where I work. It's really nice to have those little guys around to watch on our breaks, when the sun is out and it's still warm outside :) They're a little skittish, but if you're patient they will let you get pretty close. Especially if you come bearing gifts in the form of little apples from the apple trees in the courtyard. Again, these pictures were taken with my little PDA, so the quality is a little low, but it gives you a good idea of what our furry friends are like. It makes me appreciate working in a place where there's plenty of greenery around. In the winter we often see deer right outside our doors, and there's even been a bear spotted once!
I had big hopes for the weekend (since it's going to be a long one - yay!), hoping to get some yardwork done. Well, it turns out we're supposed to get the tail end of a hurricane, so they're predicting rain for the whole weekend. Hopefully that will give us the opportunity to do some tidying around the house. I am hoping to get the computer room to the point where we can actually put the laptop in there. We've been leaving the laptop on the dining room table, because you can barely even get in to the computer room... Sigh! An overdue cleanup that is!!
Hope you have a good weekend!
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Weekend pictures
Well, I am falling behind on my blog updates... FIL has been staying with us, so we've been pretty busy... But fun anyway :D
The first picture is of me at a tiny little creek during our hike. The colours were very beautiful :) And I love the stones in the water, they were so beautiful. There seemed to be a lot of marble rocks around, and the ones polished by the water were especially pretty! So many colours, and so shiny :P
This is a photo of my friend with her horse. Don't they look cute together? My friend has had this horse for 14 years. You can tell they're good buddies. And he listens to her very well!
And last but not least is photographic proof that I did ride on the horse. It was a lot of fun, and the horse was very well behaved. DH got to ride it too, but the pictures I took didn't turn out as good.
Ttfn,
The first picture is of me at a tiny little creek during our hike. The colours were very beautiful :) And I love the stones in the water, they were so beautiful. There seemed to be a lot of marble rocks around, and the ones polished by the water were especially pretty! So many colours, and so shiny :P
This is a photo of my friend with her horse. Don't they look cute together? My friend has had this horse for 14 years. You can tell they're good buddies. And he listens to her very well!
And last but not least is photographic proof that I did ride on the horse. It was a lot of fun, and the horse was very well behaved. DH got to ride it too, but the pictures I took didn't turn out as good.Ttfn,
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Weekend musings...
So this weekend we went down to a friend's cottage. It's really just a small house in Sutton, a small town in southern Quebec. Very beautiful country side, nice hills for hiking (we did 4 hours on Saturday - lots of fun), many stables (we went to visit my friend's horse), and lots of quaint restaurants in town. I have some pictures coming up :) We're now back at my parent's place, just for a few hours, and then we're going to pick up DH's Dad at the airport. We'll be home late tonight! And then another work week awaits us :)
I've had lots of deep thoughts at the cottage, being surrounded by nature tends to do that to me. No time to jot them down today, maybe sometime during the week I can find some time to post them.
In the meantime, take care!
I've had lots of deep thoughts at the cottage, being surrounded by nature tends to do that to me. No time to jot them down today, maybe sometime during the week I can find some time to post them.
In the meantime, take care!
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
100 items
I've seen this on a few other blogs, and thought it may be interesting to see if I can fill 100 tidbits about myself. So here it goes:
1. I was born in Poland
2. Warsaw, the capital to be more precise
3. My parents were geeky physics students
4. I was a result of an unplanned pregnancy :O
5. But that's ok, cause my Mommy loves me anyway ;)
6. I think my Dad does too,
7. But it's hard to tell cause he's still bitter about the divorce :(
8. Yes, my parents split up when I was around 11
9. But first they had another kid
10. My sis M1 :)
11. They both remarried
12. I have a half-sister on my Mother's side
13. She's M2 :)
14. And two half-brothers on my Father's side
15. I don't even know their names
16. And I have never met them
17. They still live in Poland
18. My family left Poland when I was 8
19. And M1 was barely over a year old
20. We went to Algeria
21. I really loved it there
22. Beautiful beaches
23. And mountains, and the desert
24. Very nice people, too
25. M2 was born in Algeria :D
26. When I was 14, we moved again
27. This time to Canada
28. M2 was barely a year old at the time
29. This is reading more like a timeline than a list of facts about me...
30. I guess my control freakish nature is showing :P
31. In Canada, we settled down in Montreal
32. The rest of my family still lives there
33. I live in Ottawa
34. With my DH
35. We've been married 5 years
36. We own a house
37. And a barn (big and blue!)
38. A garage and two cars
39. No kids and no pets
40. Except for the animals that wander over
41. Like deers, rabbits, gophers
42. Sometimes cats and kittens
43. And sometimes snakes too :S
44. I'm a Math and Computer Science grad
45. I work on big software projects
46. And I really do like it
47. Which makes me a big geek :P
48. I work at a big telecomm company
49. Which has it's plusses and minuses...
50. My DH has the same background as me
51. In fact we met while both working at this company
52. But now he's doing something completely different
53. He's an english editor, believe it or not
54. He's nitpicky like me, so that makes him a very good editor :D
55. Wow, all this typing and I'm only 1/2 way through!
56. My DH is a big car nut
57. He knows so much about cars, it's sometimes creepy
58. He can rhyme off all sorts of numbers about a whole slew of classic cars
59. I like cars too
60. But I mostly like driving them
61. I'm really not good at memorizing numbers
62. Song lyrics I can do
63. But numbers just don't stick
64. People think that's funny coming from a math major
65. But I was doing mostly "abstract" math
66. All with letters and no numbers :)
67. That's the kind of math I like
68. Like puzzles
69. Sudoku for example
70. I like nature
71. Which is why we live on the outskirts of the city
72. It's nice at all times of the year
73. But fall and winter are most spectacular
74. We cross-country ski in our backyard :)
75. Three quarters done
76. This is harder than it looks!
77. I like traveling
78. I've visited 4 continents so far
79. At least 12 countries
80. Flying or driving to the destination may be half the fun
81. DH and I have driven across Canada
82. The only province I haven't visited yet is Newfoundland
83. Will have to do that some day
84. That and the Yukon
85. We've seen a bit of the Northwest Territories
86. Phew, this is getting long!
87. This year, I became an aunt
88. DH's brother's wife had twins
89. A boy and a girl :)
90. Haven't seen them yet, hope to in September
91. Hmmm, what else can I say?
92. I love cooking
93. We renovated out kitchen this year, and I love it!
94. My favourite part may be the induction stove
95. Easy to clean: nothing ever burns on it!
96. Are you bored yet?
97. Have I mentioned I love music?
98. And singing - I've been in choirs for 15 years
99. I'm a soprano
100. Which basically means I have a high pitched (some say shrill) voice :)
I made it!!!
It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I've got lots to say, but I found it hard to summarize things into bullet form. But it's certainly an interesting exercise...
Later!
1. I was born in Poland
2. Warsaw, the capital to be more precise
3. My parents were geeky physics students
4. I was a result of an unplanned pregnancy :O
5. But that's ok, cause my Mommy loves me anyway ;)
6. I think my Dad does too,
7. But it's hard to tell cause he's still bitter about the divorce :(
8. Yes, my parents split up when I was around 11
9. But first they had another kid
10. My sis M1 :)
11. They both remarried
12. I have a half-sister on my Mother's side
13. She's M2 :)
14. And two half-brothers on my Father's side
15. I don't even know their names
16. And I have never met them
17. They still live in Poland
18. My family left Poland when I was 8
19. And M1 was barely over a year old
20. We went to Algeria
21. I really loved it there
22. Beautiful beaches
23. And mountains, and the desert
24. Very nice people, too
25. M2 was born in Algeria :D
26. When I was 14, we moved again
27. This time to Canada
28. M2 was barely a year old at the time
29. This is reading more like a timeline than a list of facts about me...
30. I guess my control freakish nature is showing :P
31. In Canada, we settled down in Montreal
32. The rest of my family still lives there
33. I live in Ottawa
34. With my DH
35. We've been married 5 years
36. We own a house
37. And a barn (big and blue!)
38. A garage and two cars
39. No kids and no pets
40. Except for the animals that wander over
41. Like deers, rabbits, gophers
42. Sometimes cats and kittens
43. And sometimes snakes too :S
44. I'm a Math and Computer Science grad
45. I work on big software projects
46. And I really do like it
47. Which makes me a big geek :P
48. I work at a big telecomm company
49. Which has it's plusses and minuses...
50. My DH has the same background as me
51. In fact we met while both working at this company
52. But now he's doing something completely different
53. He's an english editor, believe it or not
54. He's nitpicky like me, so that makes him a very good editor :D
55. Wow, all this typing and I'm only 1/2 way through!
56. My DH is a big car nut
57. He knows so much about cars, it's sometimes creepy
58. He can rhyme off all sorts of numbers about a whole slew of classic cars
59. I like cars too
60. But I mostly like driving them
61. I'm really not good at memorizing numbers
62. Song lyrics I can do
63. But numbers just don't stick
64. People think that's funny coming from a math major
65. But I was doing mostly "abstract" math
66. All with letters and no numbers :)
67. That's the kind of math I like
68. Like puzzles
69. Sudoku for example
70. I like nature
71. Which is why we live on the outskirts of the city
72. It's nice at all times of the year
73. But fall and winter are most spectacular
74. We cross-country ski in our backyard :)
75. Three quarters done
76. This is harder than it looks!
77. I like traveling
78. I've visited 4 continents so far
79. At least 12 countries
80. Flying or driving to the destination may be half the fun
81. DH and I have driven across Canada
82. The only province I haven't visited yet is Newfoundland
83. Will have to do that some day
84. That and the Yukon
85. We've seen a bit of the Northwest Territories
86. Phew, this is getting long!
87. This year, I became an aunt
88. DH's brother's wife had twins
89. A boy and a girl :)
90. Haven't seen them yet, hope to in September
91. Hmmm, what else can I say?
92. I love cooking
93. We renovated out kitchen this year, and I love it!
94. My favourite part may be the induction stove
95. Easy to clean: nothing ever burns on it!
96. Are you bored yet?
97. Have I mentioned I love music?
98. And singing - I've been in choirs for 15 years
99. I'm a soprano
100. Which basically means I have a high pitched (some say shrill) voice :)
I made it!!!
It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I've got lots to say, but I found it hard to summarize things into bullet form. But it's certainly an interesting exercise...
Later!
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Furry friends
Ok, so for a change of pace, today I am posting a picture of another furry animal. This one was taken at work, just a few minutes ago while I was out taking a walk. Unfortunately the photo quality is not the best, since I snapped it with my PDA (low, low resolution). Still, it gives you an idea of how tame they are, and how much they like munching on the tiny little crabapples in the courtyard. They make a mess around the steps into the buildings, as they like to dig their holes around there. It's interesting to watch them fatten up over the summer. In the spring they actually look emeciated, but by now they seem to have gained all the weight they will need to survive the winter :)
This weekend, we're going to visit a friend's cottage in the Eastern Townships. We'll get to see her horse, and do some hiking, I'm really looking forward to it. I don't get to see that friend very often, even though she lives in Montreal, which is only a few hours away. We went to high school together, and it's really nice to be able to keep in touch. DH still hangs out with friends he had in kindergarten (growing up in a small town sometimes does that to you). But I have travelled so much as a kid (3 continents, 7 languages and 10 schools!), that it was really hard to keep in touch with friends. So it was really nice to finally land in Montreal at 14 and realize that this was going to be a fairly permanent home, and that I may be able to keep in touch with my friends in highschool for a while. I will admit I am not very good at keeping in touch, and I am hoping to maybe one day start using this blog as one of the tools for it. But for now, at least I am very thankful to have some friends that look past my chronic inability to reply to emails in a timely manner and try to get together with me from time to time.
I really should dig deeper into the reasons why I am so bad at keeping in touch with friends and acquaintances. After all, I love getting news from them, and I get so excited to get a phone call or an email from them. I know I am a procrastinator, but I have the feeling there's something else at play here too. I never know what to say, weirdly enough. I am a blabber-mouth in person (everyone knows that), but I guess when I put what I want to say in writing it seems trite and unimportant. I think without the feedback of the face-to-face conversation, I feel lost and unimportant... I think of lots of things to say, but as soon as I write it down, it seems so booring. I suppose this is another reason I have started this blog (subconsciously), so that I can get used to writing general bla-bla stuff (I have no problems with work emails, or emails with some kind of purpose), at first with no audience (noone knows about this blog yet), and eventually, as I get a little bolder with a small audience that may grow to be bigger... We'll see if I ever work up the courage for that :)
Enough rambling for one day...
Take care!
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Yardwork and misc musings
It's the weekend (yay!), and yesterday we finally managed to destroy the huge raspberry invasion at the side of the house. After a good four hours of work in the heat, we finally managed to pull out all of the bushes and most of the roots. The bushes were covering an area of about 225 square feet, so it was certainly no small feat. Here's a few pictures of what it looks like now:
After pulling everything out, I raked all the remaining dry old stalks and roots, and the thing looks a little more presentable. I know, it's hard to believe that this picture of devastation is actually a cause for celebration, but trust me, it's better than it was. I can finally start the actual landscaping :)
After all the yardwork, we took the night off and went to play poker at a friend's house. I don't know why, but a night of playing poker with the boys always puts me in a contemplative mood. I think it's the company - we always end up discussing lots of interesting but also very depressing topics. Lots of things to think about and mull over. Last night (and this morning), I kept thinking how hard it is to reconcile being a reasoned, logical person, and a happy one at the same time. I mean, really, if you think about, statistically, there are more tangible things that are bad, than things that are good with this world. Yes, there are happy and beautiful things around us all the time, but most of the time those things do not appeal to the logical side of us. In fact, if you spend enough time thinking about anything happy or beautiful, through logical reasoning you can probably reduce it to something bad (Beautiful sunset? Too bad we're polluting the earth at such a precipitous rate, a few generations from now they may not be able to appreciate sunsets. Cute kittens at our doorstep? Who's the @^&$*^%*#$^% who abandoned them? etc). I guess somehwat of an answer to this is to appreciate the little things in life and realize that sometimes simply the lack of anything bad is actually a cause for happiness. And not to anticipate the next bad thing that's coming up. Because really, statistically it is coming. Whether it's another war, another epidemic or a personal tragedy, there's no escaping it... Just this week in the news we have war, insurgency, the AIDS conference... Need I say more?
Anyway, believe it or not, I am actually sort of hopeful after this grim deliberation. I have a glimpse of a silver lining, that I need to explore a little further... The work of a geeky "life examiner" is never over...
Thought-provokingly yours,
After pulling everything out, I raked all the remaining dry old stalks and roots, and the thing looks a little more presentable. I know, it's hard to believe that this picture of devastation is actually a cause for celebration, but trust me, it's better than it was. I can finally start the actual landscaping :)
After all the yardwork, we took the night off and went to play poker at a friend's house. I don't know why, but a night of playing poker with the boys always puts me in a contemplative mood. I think it's the company - we always end up discussing lots of interesting but also very depressing topics. Lots of things to think about and mull over. Last night (and this morning), I kept thinking how hard it is to reconcile being a reasoned, logical person, and a happy one at the same time. I mean, really, if you think about, statistically, there are more tangible things that are bad, than things that are good with this world. Yes, there are happy and beautiful things around us all the time, but most of the time those things do not appeal to the logical side of us. In fact, if you spend enough time thinking about anything happy or beautiful, through logical reasoning you can probably reduce it to something bad (Beautiful sunset? Too bad we're polluting the earth at such a precipitous rate, a few generations from now they may not be able to appreciate sunsets. Cute kittens at our doorstep? Who's the @^&$*^%*#$^% who abandoned them? etc). I guess somehwat of an answer to this is to appreciate the little things in life and realize that sometimes simply the lack of anything bad is actually a cause for happiness. And not to anticipate the next bad thing that's coming up. Because really, statistically it is coming. Whether it's another war, another epidemic or a personal tragedy, there's no escaping it... Just this week in the news we have war, insurgency, the AIDS conference... Need I say more?
Anyway, believe it or not, I am actually sort of hopeful after this grim deliberation. I have a glimpse of a silver lining, that I need to explore a little further... The work of a geeky "life examiner" is never over...
Thought-provokingly yours,
Friday, August 18, 2006
Life is short
I just got some bad news about a coworker we haven't seen in a week. His Sister-In-Law died in a car accident last week, in the vehicle driven by her husband, with both their kids (8 and 12 yo boys) in the back seat (everyone else survived ok). As if that wasn't tragic enough, the other SIL died of a heart attack this week. Both women were in their late 30's... I just can't imagine how terribly devastating this must be. No word can describe the giant pit in my stomach as I've been thinking about this, and I didn't even know them. It's a pretty close-knit family, so they must all just be beside themselves. I can't even fathom the parents having to deal with losing two daughters in the span of a week! We're all sending positive thoughts and vibes to the family...
A grim reminder to live our lives fully, cause we don't know the day or the hour...
Mournfully,
A grim reminder to live our lives fully, cause we don't know the day or the hour...
Mournfully,
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Just a quick update
I've been meaning to post for a while, but can't seem to get around to actually doing it. Probably because I have no new pictures to post... My friend A (no, not the one whose wedding we went to on the weekend before last) had a baby girl on Monday. Quite exciting, I can't wait to get some more news about it. They now live in Quebec city, so I am hoping to go visit quickly on our next trip down east. I'm not quite sure about the little girl's name or any other specifics, should get them from my Mom tonight (she was supposed to talk to A's mom last night :)).
Aside from that, not much is new. Many people at work have gone on vacation, leaving me to take care of our area, which is pretty cool. Things are pretty slow (MANY people are on vacation), so it's not like I am swamped. But busy enough, trying to catch up on work that's been piling up during the busier months. I am also taking advantage of the lull by helping the new employees in our group, explaining things that they may not have had the chance to work with yet. I really like that part of my job, though it can seem thankless at times. I have the feeling many people don't realize how critical it is to prepare before trying to explain things to someone. Especially someone completely new in the area. We take so much for granted, and if we don't start the explanation with the totally basic assumptions, and skip some steps, we can confuse people much more than help. So I do find it challenging (in a good way) to try to come up with the right level of complexity in my explanations... It's fun, especially when I feel like I have the time to prepare and/or take my time presenting the information.
When it comes to the kittens, they are getting more adventurous every day. They don't always sleep on our decks at night, they seem to do a lot of hunting. They seem to be getting ready to move over to the neighbour's barn, as we're seeing them explore the areas in between our yards. It's good that they're getting ready to move on, but it's making me sad to think that very soon, we won't be seeing them everyday anymore. I got attached to the little furballs :) Though they're still quite wild, and not too crazy about being picked up.
Better get back to work!
Later!
Aside from that, not much is new. Many people at work have gone on vacation, leaving me to take care of our area, which is pretty cool. Things are pretty slow (MANY people are on vacation), so it's not like I am swamped. But busy enough, trying to catch up on work that's been piling up during the busier months. I am also taking advantage of the lull by helping the new employees in our group, explaining things that they may not have had the chance to work with yet. I really like that part of my job, though it can seem thankless at times. I have the feeling many people don't realize how critical it is to prepare before trying to explain things to someone. Especially someone completely new in the area. We take so much for granted, and if we don't start the explanation with the totally basic assumptions, and skip some steps, we can confuse people much more than help. So I do find it challenging (in a good way) to try to come up with the right level of complexity in my explanations... It's fun, especially when I feel like I have the time to prepare and/or take my time presenting the information.
When it comes to the kittens, they are getting more adventurous every day. They don't always sleep on our decks at night, they seem to do a lot of hunting. They seem to be getting ready to move over to the neighbour's barn, as we're seeing them explore the areas in between our yards. It's good that they're getting ready to move on, but it's making me sad to think that very soon, we won't be seeing them everyday anymore. I got attached to the little furballs :) Though they're still quite wild, and not too crazy about being picked up.
Better get back to work!
Later!
Monday, August 14, 2006
Monday, Monday
So the weekend is over. As usual, it went way too fast. I have no new stories about the kittens, though they continue their cute mischief (like toppling over chairs on our deck, and anything else they can find that's free standing...) I may post a few more pictures later.
Yesterday, we went to the movies to watch "Superman returns". I think the movie had a fair amount of potential, the acting seemed ok to me, but in the end it turned out pretty melodramatic, the emotionally manipulating scenes went on for way too long, and by the end everyone was really tired of the long swooping shots. I was pleasantly surprised, though, at the good job that Brandon Routh did as Superman. At first glance, he seemed way too young to be able to play the role of a guy who's been around for a while, and gone through a lot of thinking and exploration during his trip to Krypton and back. But in the end, he pulled it off. I think his deep voice helps create the illusion that he is a little older. I also liked the little kid in the movie (I think his name is TristanLake Leabu), though he didn't have much of a role. Other than that, though, the film was mostly disappointing. Which explains the almost-empty theater :)
Aside from the movie and visiting with friends, we also got a fair bit of yardwork done. I am trying to clear out the raspberry patch on the right side of the house, and it's turning out to be a pretty big job. Those roots just go everywhere! I am hoping to get this side cleaned up this year, so I can put in a path, and maybe some creeping vines as ground cover... But the first step is to cut out the bushes and pull out the roots. I figure there's around 10 man-hours of clearing left to do.
So as promised, here are a few more pictures of the kittens from the weekend:
Oh, and I've also put the kittens into the kittenwar website. Doing pretty well, if I may say so myself.
Toodaloo!
Yesterday, we went to the movies to watch "Superman returns". I think the movie had a fair amount of potential, the acting seemed ok to me, but in the end it turned out pretty melodramatic, the emotionally manipulating scenes went on for way too long, and by the end everyone was really tired of the long swooping shots. I was pleasantly surprised, though, at the good job that Brandon Routh did as Superman. At first glance, he seemed way too young to be able to play the role of a guy who's been around for a while, and gone through a lot of thinking and exploration during his trip to Krypton and back. But in the end, he pulled it off. I think his deep voice helps create the illusion that he is a little older. I also liked the little kid in the movie (I think his name is TristanLake Leabu), though he didn't have much of a role. Other than that, though, the film was mostly disappointing. Which explains the almost-empty theater :)
Aside from the movie and visiting with friends, we also got a fair bit of yardwork done. I am trying to clear out the raspberry patch on the right side of the house, and it's turning out to be a pretty big job. Those roots just go everywhere! I am hoping to get this side cleaned up this year, so I can put in a path, and maybe some creeping vines as ground cover... But the first step is to cut out the bushes and pull out the roots. I figure there's around 10 man-hours of clearing left to do.
So as promised, here are a few more pictures of the kittens from the weekend:
Oh, and I've also put the kittens into the kittenwar website. Doing pretty well, if I may say so myself.
Toodaloo!
Saturday, August 12, 2006
It's the weekend again...
Yay, it's Saturday. More time to spend with the kittens, as well as with our human friends. We went to visit C&K today (the couple we travelled to China with, see the link on the side bar). The little girls are getting bigger, and seem to be learning new stuff constantly. They will be crawling and walking in no time... And they are still soooo cute!!! Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the camera, so I have no pictures... But you can always see the latest pictures at http://andstillwaiting.blogspot.com.
Instead, I have a couple of kitten pictures for you :)
Kittens on the porch...
Kitten stuck in a tree...
Instead, I have a couple of kitten pictures for you :)
Kittens on the porch...
Kitten stuck in a tree...
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