Saturday, January 31, 2009
Busy Week Ahead!
It's been a busy week or two! I was down in Waterloo Jan 21 to help judge the engineering fourth year design projects - I even got to do a big speech! It's always tons of fun going down to see the projects...the students almost all do a fantastic job on the projects, and there are so many neat and different ideas.
Had the girls over last weekend for brunch - the one downside of our apartment is that there's fairly limited accommodation for big groups in terms of seating etc, but I think we managed pretty ok with the 9 or so folks who were here! Yay for crepes! Yay for really good maple and honey breakfast sausage!
Was at a bud's place last night and played Rockband for the first time. While I think I'd get tired of it pretty quickly, it was actually a surprisingly good time. Simon - you'd be glad to know that I haven't lost much of my Wii tennis finesse.
Tomorrow is Super Bowl. I'm heading over to Ryan & Tova's house with LT for our annual super bowl + proline festivities. This year I'm optimistic that we'll actually win on atleast one of our proline tickets - we bet "under" on almost everything... first half points UNDER 23.5, longest punt return UNDER 18.5 yards, QB sacks UNDER 5.5, etc)
I'm heading down to New York for Monday and Tuesday, then am down to Waterloo for coop interviews on Friday. Also, I thiiiink Ali starts in TO on Monday! New lunch buddy!
Had the girls over last weekend for brunch - the one downside of our apartment is that there's fairly limited accommodation for big groups in terms of seating etc, but I think we managed pretty ok with the 9 or so folks who were here! Yay for crepes! Yay for really good maple and honey breakfast sausage!
Was at a bud's place last night and played Rockband for the first time. While I think I'd get tired of it pretty quickly, it was actually a surprisingly good time. Simon - you'd be glad to know that I haven't lost much of my Wii tennis finesse.
Tomorrow is Super Bowl. I'm heading over to Ryan & Tova's house with LT for our annual super bowl + proline festivities. This year I'm optimistic that we'll actually win on atleast one of our proline tickets - we bet "under" on almost everything... first half points UNDER 23.5, longest punt return UNDER 18.5 yards, QB sacks UNDER 5.5, etc)
I'm heading down to New York for Monday and Tuesday, then am down to Waterloo for coop interviews on Friday. Also, I thiiiink Ali starts in TO on Monday! New lunch buddy!
Labels: clique, new york, sausage, Waterloo
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Nortel? Not so much,.
Hard to believe, but Nortel has filed for bankruptcy protection. Seems like not so long ago that every friggin office building in Ottawa had the Nortel logo plastered to the side of it.
I can't help but feel a sense of personal responsability for the situation though. I'm just realizing now that I never left a note to tell them "It was an open bracket instead of a closed bracket!"
I can't help but feel a sense of personal responsability for the situation though. I'm just realizing now that I never left a note to tell them "It was an open bracket instead of a closed bracket!"
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Bubble Spinner
Bubble Spinner just wasted about 4 hours of my life. However, I *did* eventually get 572 points, and ALLLLMOST passed level 2.
Warning: Clicking may be detrimental to your weekend plans.
Warning: Clicking may be detrimental to your weekend plans.
Labels: Games
Thursday, January 01, 2009
The Hand
Many of you will remember (or NOT remember) the high school exploits at The Radisson downtown on New Years; dancing the night away at the hindu new years downstairs, "the hand", trying to break into the rotat-y part up top, Rob puking in the lobby bathrooms, goldschlager and....the fire alarms / firemen.
Every year just around midnight someone would pull the fire alarm. Everyone would have to walk/stumble down the stairs, and congregate inside the lobby, or outside in the freezing cold for the braver of heart. Inevitably I'd wander up to the fireman in charge, and say "Don't worry sir, I'm here....the situation is UNDER CONTROL." He'd politely acknowledge my stupidity and go about his business.
Well...sure glad I wasn't there last night.
Every year just around midnight someone would pull the fire alarm. Everyone would have to walk/stumble down the stairs, and congregate inside the lobby, or outside in the freezing cold for the braver of heart. Inevitably I'd wander up to the fireman in charge, and say "Don't worry sir, I'm here....the situation is UNDER CONTROL." He'd politely acknowledge my stupidity and go about his business.
Well...sure glad I wasn't there last night.
Labels: New Years
Welcome to 2009!
As the clocks rolled over to a New Year last night, it was hard to not look forward and get excited about the year ahead!
Theoretically possible scenarios for 2009
- Reading more books, with an emphasis on Canadian authors. Recommendations? (So far this break I've plowed through 2 trashy John Grisham books, and am halfway through The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews - pronounces Taves).
- Running 5km in under 20 minutes - I don't think this is a particularly daunting time and will be adjusted up or down once I have a better idea of what is reasonable. This is has been an annual resolution for quite some time, but I always end up having problems with my ankles / shins and after running a few times in a 1-2 week period, I'm out for the rest of the season.
- Beating Dave at squash 2 consecutive times. Totally doable! My record is roughly 3-80, but 2 of those 3 wins came in 2008. The sky is the limit. New squash shoes required. Hopefully 5km magic will improve odds.
- Honeymoon in Vegas. This is at best a slight possibility.
- Bachelor Party in Vegas - slightly more possible, but still unlikely.
- Get home from work by 6:30 more often. Likely means getting to work earlier.
- Get a gym membership. I doubt I'd really use it all that often, but there's a gym around the corner from work with a $25 monthly membership. They don't have either squash courts or a pool, which are the two main things I want from a gym, however U of T is more like $75 per month and is more out of the way. Without being able to bike to work in the winters, I get bored and lazy.
- Master the 2 eggs + homefries breakfast. Eggs should be cookable upon request as sunny side up, over easy, over hard, poached and scrambled. Over easy and over hard should be flipped in the air. Homefries will be of maximum deliciousness.
- Make brie + pear crepes, as good or better than Wild Oats in the Glebe.
- Visit Dessert Trends. Figure out what all the rage is about.
- Truly master truffle making. I want more consistency in size, shape and outer coating. Also want to be more consistent in terms of texture / thickness of inner filling.
- Maintain a cleaner (note: not "clean", cleanER) desk both at work and at home.
- Use my slow cooker atleast 5 times before April. Will make atleast 3 different kinds of dishes.
- Maximize on Crate and Barrel free mimosa breakfast / wedding registry combo. (Ali - do you want to swing in to Toronto and do this as a double breakfast date?)
- Laura and I will improve our Bridge Game. Step 1. read Chapters 3-6 of the Bridge Book (Chapters 7-10 are 2010 objectives). Step 2. Figure out how to RESPOND to bids. Step 3. Figure out how scoring works. Step 4. Play Bridge atleast 10 times during the year.
- Re-learn how to make really good white russians, broken down golf carts and atleast 2 other fun drinks from my bartending course book. (sweet, sweet duty free)
- Have people over to the apartment atleast 10 times. This can include breakfast (see above), to play bridge(see above) or to help consume the massive accumulation of liquor in our liquor cabinet( see mixed drink making goal, above).
- Bike atleast 1000km. (5km/day for work * 100 days + 10 days * 50km+ serious riding). Ideally try to do some "Northern" Ontario (ie Barrie and beyond!)
- Write atleast 10 letters to friends. Sending cheques does not count. Thank you cards for wedding stuff do not count.
- Get atleast 10 trails total (up from 5 today) up on VirtualTrails.ca (Gatineau Park Trail Maps), the project I've been working on with my dad for the past year. Currently geared towards cross country ski trails, but want to eventually get a "Summer mode" more geared to hiking and biking.
- Do a sweet website for Laura's dad for his wedding photography business.
- Watch every episode of 24(Season 7), Fringe(Season 1) and Smallville(Season 8).
- Master the art of making brownies. This builds upon my 2008 goal of making really good rice krispie squares.
- Spend atleast 1 hour a week just listening to music. I listen to music all day at work, but I hardly ever JUST listen to music any more. You can only really appreciate music when you really pay attention to it. (Got Laura a fancy new stereo for our room for Christmas).
- Listen to the full soundtrack of the Sound of Music atleast 5 times before seeing the Sound of Music! (LT got me tickets for Christmas!!)
Maybe more to come later!
Theoretically possible scenarios for 2009
- Reading more books, with an emphasis on Canadian authors. Recommendations? (So far this break I've plowed through 2 trashy John Grisham books, and am halfway through The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews - pronounces Taves).
- Running 5km in under 20 minutes - I don't think this is a particularly daunting time and will be adjusted up or down once I have a better idea of what is reasonable. This is has been an annual resolution for quite some time, but I always end up having problems with my ankles / shins and after running a few times in a 1-2 week period, I'm out for the rest of the season.
- Beating Dave at squash 2 consecutive times. Totally doable! My record is roughly 3-80, but 2 of those 3 wins came in 2008. The sky is the limit. New squash shoes required. Hopefully 5km magic will improve odds.
- Honeymoon in Vegas. This is at best a slight possibility.
- Bachelor Party in Vegas - slightly more possible, but still unlikely.
- Get home from work by 6:30 more often. Likely means getting to work earlier.
- Get a gym membership. I doubt I'd really use it all that often, but there's a gym around the corner from work with a $25 monthly membership. They don't have either squash courts or a pool, which are the two main things I want from a gym, however U of T is more like $75 per month and is more out of the way. Without being able to bike to work in the winters, I get bored and lazy.
- Master the 2 eggs + homefries breakfast. Eggs should be cookable upon request as sunny side up, over easy, over hard, poached and scrambled. Over easy and over hard should be flipped in the air. Homefries will be of maximum deliciousness.
- Make brie + pear crepes, as good or better than Wild Oats in the Glebe.
- Visit Dessert Trends. Figure out what all the rage is about.
- Truly master truffle making. I want more consistency in size, shape and outer coating. Also want to be more consistent in terms of texture / thickness of inner filling.
- Maintain a cleaner (note: not "clean", cleanER) desk both at work and at home.
- Use my slow cooker atleast 5 times before April. Will make atleast 3 different kinds of dishes.
- Maximize on Crate and Barrel free mimosa breakfast / wedding registry combo. (Ali - do you want to swing in to Toronto and do this as a double breakfast date?)
- Laura and I will improve our Bridge Game. Step 1. read Chapters 3-6 of the Bridge Book (Chapters 7-10 are 2010 objectives). Step 2. Figure out how to RESPOND to bids. Step 3. Figure out how scoring works. Step 4. Play Bridge atleast 10 times during the year.
- Re-learn how to make really good white russians, broken down golf carts and atleast 2 other fun drinks from my bartending course book. (sweet, sweet duty free)
- Have people over to the apartment atleast 10 times. This can include breakfast (see above), to play bridge(see above) or to help consume the massive accumulation of liquor in our liquor cabinet( see mixed drink making goal, above).
- Bike atleast 1000km. (5km/day for work * 100 days + 10 days * 50km+ serious riding). Ideally try to do some "Northern" Ontario (ie Barrie and beyond!)
- Write atleast 10 letters to friends. Sending cheques does not count. Thank you cards for wedding stuff do not count.
- Get atleast 10 trails total (up from 5 today) up on VirtualTrails.ca (Gatineau Park Trail Maps), the project I've been working on with my dad for the past year. Currently geared towards cross country ski trails, but want to eventually get a "Summer mode" more geared to hiking and biking.
- Do a sweet website for Laura's dad for his wedding photography business.
- Watch every episode of 24(Season 7), Fringe(Season 1) and Smallville(Season 8).
- Master the art of making brownies. This builds upon my 2008 goal of making really good rice krispie squares.
- Spend atleast 1 hour a week just listening to music. I listen to music all day at work, but I hardly ever JUST listen to music any more. You can only really appreciate music when you really pay attention to it. (Got Laura a fancy new stereo for our room for Christmas).
- Listen to the full soundtrack of the Sound of Music atleast 5 times before seeing the Sound of Music! (LT got me tickets for Christmas!!)
Maybe more to come later!
Labels: 2009, Resolutions
