Hit smack dab in the face, first thing Monday…

Posted on November 21, 2019 by

I was sort of hoping that when I returned to work on Monday that I would be able to ease into the work-week, ease back into the work routine, you know, nothing out of the ordinary.  Well, nope.   Monday, at 6:30am when I started, I was hit, smack-bad in the face with issues and it continued, pretty well non-stop through the end of yesterday.  Don’t get me wrong, it made for an interesting three days and three very fast days as well, they zoomed by.

It was a good, I suppose, start to the work-week and my return to work.  I can’t say I was bored at any rate and I didn’t drown, so, at the end of the day, all is well.  Just another two days left and I think it should be a tad quieter.

Nothing really planned for the upcoming weekend, a hike or two with the dogs and a nap or two on the weekend.  I will catch the Bills game on Sunday, hopefully, they can continue in their winning ways and drive for a playoff spot, that would be sweet.  Next week, they play in Dallas on American Thanksgiving.  That will be exciting.  I am hoping that I can catch a Cowboys game next September when I hopefully will visit Texas.  It will depend on the schedule of course, if Dallas is home, and also on how much it will cost – I understand it can be rather expensive.

Nothing else happening in my world.  I am glad to be back into my regular routine.  I am not planning on being away from home any time soon, I am sure the dogs will be happy about that.  The holidays are approaching and I will likely have a friend down for a few days over Christmas, so that will be nice.  Otherwise, the holidays are quiet, just the way I like ’em.

 

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Back to a normal routine…

Posted on November 18, 2019 by

My week off is over.  I am actually glad to be back into a normal routine.  It was relaxing, but I actually got bored, my own fault of course.

My trip to Calgary on Friday was productive.  I left around 11AM and dropped the dogs off at the pet resort for a one-night stay.  They happily went in, which is good to see – I do believe they like it there.

The trek north was uneventful which is how all trips should be.  The weather was nice, warm, for this time of year, nearly 10C.  I stopped at Costco in Okotoks.  Gas was 90 cents a litre, filled up.  I went in to get dog food and chicken treats for the dogs.  Well, as I am heading for the check-outs, there was a large Traeger grill display and a couple of Traeger reps.  They normally don’t sell Traeger grills at Costco, just the accessories, this was a factory direct thing.

I ended up buying myself a Traeger, I have been looking for a number of months and I saved a lot of money buying one on Friday.  I got some free add-ons when he thought I was going to walk away without buying, so I am happy.  It did sort of derail the shopping in Calgary I had planned to do, but what the hell.  I now have the grill/smoker that I wanted and got it for a great price.

I spent part of the afternoon in the Calgary office, saw some co-workers I normally don’t see so it was a good afternoon.

Dinner was at Mina’s Brazilian Steakhouse in downtown Calgary.  It was a great venue and the food was pretty darn good as well.  It was not the best Brazilian place I have been to in Calgary but it was an 8/10 all in all.  None of us left hungry and it didn’t cost me a dime since this was the result of the Astros beating the Yankees in the ALCS.

I spent the night in Calgary.  Driving home after a Meat Coma meal, at night (for 2.5 hours) at this time of year can sometimes not be fun.  I left Calgary around 8am on Saturday, retrieved my dogs and had a relaxing rest of the weekend.

Back to work today and I am glad to be back into a normal routine, until the Christmas break I guess anyway.  Have a good week.

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A relaxing week off…

Posted on November 13, 2019 by

My week off is going well, nice and relaxing which is exactly what I was looking for. I am heading out shortly to take the dogs for a hike. The weather is good for this time of year, it is partly cloudy and the temps are right around the zero mark.

I won’t really have much else planned for the day, or tomorrow either. Friday, I will drop the dogs off at the Pet Resort for a one night stay and I will head to Calgary until Saturday morning. The weather forecast is good, so that’s a bonus.

I may go for lunch with a co-worker on Friday, not sure as yet but for dinner, I am hitting up Mina’s Brazilian Steakhouse for all u can eat meat. It should be a good time, to be sure and the best part is that it won’t cost me a dime. Dinner is a result of a won bet, the Astros beat the Yankees in the ALCS. Should be a great meal indeed.

Saturday I will make a stop at Costco for some dog food and other stuff and then I am having an appetizer night with the neighbours. There have been some great recipes on Facebook lately and we are trying a few of them.

On Sunday, I will catch the Bills game, hopefully catch another win, but, with the way they’ve been playing, I am not banking on it.

Anyway, happy Hump Day, enjoy the rest of your week.

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Good for Don Cherry

Posted on November 12, 2019 by

Yesterday was Remembrance Day in Canada, Veterans Day in the US.  It is a good day to reflect on the sacrifices many made for us so that we can live free as we do.

On the weekend, a Canadian icon, Don Cherry made some remarks about people not wearing poppies.  The “left” were outraged.  Of course, the “left” are outraged by most things these days.  It’s absolutely ridiculous.

Rogers Sportsnet apologized for Don’s remarks, where many of us don’t think an apology is necessary.  Ron MacLean apologized for Don’s remarks.  Ron is a wimp.  Kowtowing to the powers that be, like he always does.  He’s disgusting, as far as I am concerned.

Yesterday, on Remembrance Day, Sportsnet fired Don Cherry for, essentially, supporting the troops.

Does it affect me?  No, not at all.  It’s gross though.  Don Cherry has always spoken his mind and had made many controversial comments over his many, many years as a hockey commentator.  Don also doesn’t apologize for what he said, instead, he stands behind it, as we all expected him to do.  Good for you, Don.  We need more people like you in Canada and fewer people who get offended by what you said, and what everyone else says.

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On staycation…

Posted on November 10, 2019 by

I was going to work on Friday and start my vacation (staycation as I am not going anyway) after work on Friday afternoon.  I accumulated some OT at the conference that I was supporting and my boss wanted me to use some of that as lieu and take most of Friday off, so I only ended up working from 6:30-8:00am and then was off.

The dogs got picked up for their pack hike and I went to do some running around that I needed to get done.  I had dropped a couple of winter jackets off at the dry cleaner to have new zippers put on, they did a great job and now I can wear my ski jacket that has not been worn in 4 or 5 years I would say.  It is a Columbia and I called (and emailed) their customer service line, getting them to repair it turned out to be impossible – they’d say “take it back to where you purchased it from”, so I did – Sport Chek, they’d say “oh no, you need to contact Columbia” – yeah, been there, done that.  Anyway, for $30 the dry cleaner fixed it, thanks.  I also had my Rockies jacket repaired, that zipper only gave way this year but I wear that jacket all the time so I didn’t want to go without I guess.

My brother in law is taking over my second cell phone contract and I am giving him my iPhone 6s to use, he’s going to port his home number to it and save himself a crap-load of money on phone bills.  I packaged everything up and brought it down to the post office.  I paid some extra so it would arrive next week as opposed to the week after, not a big deal, I was supposed to send it so that it arrived WHILE he was in Cuba last week, but I forgot.  Well, when I got home, I discovered that the phone was still sitting on a cabinet in my living room – I had sent all of the accessories.  Sigh…  Now I will need to send the phone, likely Tuesday.  Oh well, it’s not like he doesn’t have a phone.  I do feel like an idiot though.

The rest of Friday was relaxing, went to bed early and got up sort of early on Saturday.  I see a lot more of this type of routine over the next week.

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Vacation time…

Posted on November 8, 2019 by

My week in Banff is over.  I left the Banff Center at 10am yesterday and headed home.  It was an interesting week.  There were some technical issues that I was able to tackle and get fixes so that was good.  We will go over the issues we experienced so that the issues we faced won’t be repeated in the future.

I am happy that I won’t have to see or interact with a couple of the people who were there – all I will say is that they are absolutely miserable human beings.

The drive home was good, the roads were all clear, just wet so my car is in bad need of a car wash and I likely need more washer fluid.

I picked up the dogs shortly after 1:30 and they were happy to see me, Hera does her little cries, I was happy to see them as well.  I am not planning on going anywhere in the next while so they won’t need to be boarding for a bit, other than possibly an overnight stay.

I am off after today for a week, the last of my vacation.  I have no plans other than dinner in Calgary a week from today.  I will take the dogs on a bunch of hikes and will nap.  Sounds pretty relaxing to me.

The weekend is here, I hope you enjoy yours.

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A week (nearly) in Banff…

Posted on November 6, 2019 by

I have been supporting the BDO A&A Conference in Banff, Alberta since Monday.  More on that in a minute.

On my way to the conference on Monday, I had to stop in Calgary to pick up some hardware for the conference.  As I was parking and paying for the parking, I had to enter my plate number in the machine.  I looked at my car and didn’t recognize the plate number.  I went back to my car (about 50 feet away) and noticed, the plate was a standard red Alberta plate, not the Support our Troops black plate.  Someone has stolen my plate and put this plate on my car.

So, as I am leaving Calgary for Banff, I call Calgary Police to report the stolen plates.  They ask me to pull-over so that’s not a problem.  I am on the phone for about 30 minutes.  She wants me to contact the RCMP in Banff to turn in the stolen plate and I can visit the Registry office in Banff to get my new plate.

So I did that this morning, yesterday was far too busy.  No issue getting a new plate, $22.50.  I then drove to the RCMP detachment, wrote a short statement and handed in the stolen plate.

All in all, it was a minor inconvenience really.  I have been driving around since I returned from my trip to Ontario with a stolen plate on my car though.  Luckily, no police had followed me and entered the plate number into their computer.

I now have a new plate, albeit a regular Alberta plate, I need to decide if I want to get a Support our Troops plate again.  They are just under $90, so I may…

The plate that was on my car was stolen in the same neighbourhood that my car was parked in while I was away.  The police didn’t tell me when that plate was reported stolen, but did confirm it was while I was away, so I know the plate theft didn’t happen when I was home anyway.

The conference was pretty good, although there were a fair number of issues on Tuesday.  Everything is back up and running now, was by mid-morning today, so that’s good.  Presuming there are no new issues tomorrow, I will head home around 10am or so.  If there are issues, I will stay and then I may need to delay my return home until Friday.  We will see what happens, but I suspect all will be well.

It’s been a good week, the Banff Center has some beautiful scenery for sure.  The food here used to be quite good, it has gone downhill quite a bit I found.  They are offering too many vegetarian and vegan dishes and not enough “real” food.  So, I am getting a bit tired of plants.  I will see what the offerings are for dinner tonight and I hope for some good meat anyway.

I am looking forward to seeing the dogs tomorrow afternoon and then I am done work for the day, so I will probably catch a nap.  I may, or may not work on Friday, regardless, I am off next week so I will enjoy that.

I’ve had a good week, even though it’s only Wednesday, hopefully you have as well.

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The weekend of nothingness…

Posted on November 3, 2019 by

This was supposed to be a weekend of nothingness and it is working out just fine.

Yesterday, I actually slept in, well, slept in to my norms, you would likely consider it getting up really early.  I was up at 5am, woke just before that so that was great.

I spent the day watch some of the Saw series of thrilling/suspense/gore movies that came out 10 years ago or so.  I had seen some of them, others I had not.  The plots, for a horror series, are actually not bad.  The gore is something else and I am finding, as I am getting older, I guess, that I don’t like it as much as I used to.  Either that or the fact that the special effects now are so much better than back in the day when I used to watch zombie movies with my sister and brother-in-law.  Anyway, I am on Saw V now, it is currently on pause, I seem to need breaks in the action, likely to collect myself.  🙂

Today, I will continue with a day of nothingness, but I do have more planned for the day.  I may head to Walmart shortly, the dogs like car rides and there are a few things I need.  It’s not a bad trip, not like living in the city though, it is 100km return.

I will catch the Redskins vs Bills game at 11am and quite likely have an afternoon nap after football.  I am going to make some chicken cacciatore this afternoon as well.  It should be good.

Tomorrow at noon(ish) I head for Banff, I am supporting a work conference until Thursday.  The dogs will go back to boarding for a few days.  Hopefully, it will be a relaxing week, I don’t want IT issues galore.  The food and accommodations at the Banff Center are amazing, so are the views.  I may take an evening and go into town and see what the tourists do.

After I get back, I will have a day and a half to work, then I am off for a week.  No real plans, other than some hikes with the dogs, presuming the weather isn’t horrible.  Winter is pretty well here already.

Enjoy your Sunday, hopefully it’s relaxing, well, presuming you are looking for a relaxing Sunday.

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I guess I called it…

Posted on October 31, 2019 by

I guess I called it correctly.  Greinke pitched a gem last night and held a 2-0 lead for most of the game.  He did give up a homerun in the 7th inning and shortly thereafter was replaced, it was a good call, he had done his job.  Now it’s up to the bullpen.

Well, they shit the bed.

Needless to say, the Nationals drove in a bunch more runs and won the World Series.  Oddly enough, the visitors won all of the games which has never occurred before.  Congratulations to the Nationals.

I would say that the Astros need to do some work in the off-season getting their pitching in order.  The bullpen needs work and they will lose a starter or two, for sure.  I am unsure on position players, that will be seen over the coming weeks and months.

So, it’s now the off-season.  On to football and some hockey.  The Bills are doing pretty well, although they lost last week in a game that just about everyone expected them to win.  In all honesty, I don’t know how the Flames are doing overall.  I have watched part of one game up to this point.

Baseball starts back up in February with Spring Training and my MLB.tv subscription will renew at the end of February.  It’s a long season, but, it IS the best sport around.

I will now tend to hibernate a lot.  I will go to bed early and hopefully sleep in a bit, you know, like 4am or so.  It’s the end of October and I am sure it will be the end of the year before we know it.

Happy Halloween to all, be safe out there tonight.

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Congratulations to the Nationals…

Posted on October 30, 2019 by

I was pumped for last nights game 6 of the World Series.  Justin Verlander was set to pitch on full rest and the Astros had been clubbing the ball.  Verlander had not pitched particularly well in the World Series and not like his normal self all play-offs, so I figured he was due.

He shit the bed.  Again.

The Astros bats came up silent.  Again.

The Astros gave up numerous home runs.  Again.

The one thing that shocked me was that the Manager actually pulled Verlander about when everyone on the planet figured he should have been pulled.  AJ Hinch has been given a team with so much talent that a, and forgive me, a drooling retard could manage, yet, he seems to screw up more often than not.  I truly hope he’s fired first thing on Thursday morning.  He won’t be, but I hope he is.

I turned the game off last night after the home run in the 6th (I think it was the 6th) after the “controversial” play at first base.  It wasn’t controversial and if you think it was, you have no clue about the rules of baseball.

Anyway, I figure that the Nationals will win tonight and for the first time ever, the visiting team will win every away game.  Quite something really.  I could be wrong, but with (likely) Grienke on the hill, he’s no match.  He’s only pitched slightly better than Verlander.  Cole may be available, mind you, on short rest, to help out, but, the Astros bats have been all but silent at home and there’s no reason to think tonight will be any different.

At present, I am considering not watching, but, I may change my mind come game time.

This post-season has pissed me off.  Oh well, I will get over it.  And if I don’t, spring training games start in on;y 4 months.

Regardless, it has been entertaining.  Congratulations to the Nationals on your first World Series title and if a string of miracles happen, then, congratulation to the Astros on your second World Series title.

Oh, Astros, when you fire Hinch tomorrow morning, I am available to manage.  Thanks.

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