Good friday

It was a good Friday.

I woke up at 1:48 and then got a lot of stuff done around the apartment in preparation for Josh's arrival. It seemed doubtful that he would come earlier in the week, but things changed course. I was happy to hear that he'll be joining the Easter dinner at the ertl household. Tomorrow is the pick-up at the train station, and before-hand I will do some grocery shopping.

As I write this, I have laundry going, and then I will pay some bills, and close the evening by washing dishes.

I have been dedicating lots of time to finding my next computer system. I am still debating between Mac and PC, laptop and desktop, big box store or small retailer and a host of other things. Should I wait for a Blue-Ray drive to become standard? Basically im sick and tired of waiting around for Windows to work, with all the error messages and slow-downs and spyware hidden on the system (even when it is brand news as it is all pre-loaded). Another consideration is that i woudl like my system to come with the operating system disc. I hate the ridiculous notion that i would need to burn a bunch of dvds in order to have a copy. In fact, it is making me angry just thinking about it.

I have made a positive change to my mornings. I now wake up to 98.5 the Jewell, as opposed to Magic fm with that crazy idiot Kevin or Bill. They made me very nervous each morning for about an hour as I lolly-gagged in bed with their crazy talk and the commercials aired on the station. It was also a loud pitch and I am sure my neighbours could hear each morning for that hour. At one point, I was worried that they would break in my condo (home invasion style) and beat me. If that happened, I would actually be sympathetic for their cause, since it was defeaningly loud in the morning. But ultimately, I would fight them off with my big CRT monitor.

I am also working on organizing two trips in May, but time is my enemy now as a lot is going on actually. In other news, I was paid out by the insurance company (not enough I dont think), but now I am still waiting on the french results.

This week I ate pizza on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and I will be getting another one I imagine at some point this weekend with Josh. Long live the pie!

Winter has made me one lazy lazy man. If I can count the number of nights I have hunkered down on the couch in front of the boob-tube, it would be a depressingly high number. Taking the bus has not helped my laziness however. If anything, it has contributed to it. Another project in the works (yes I have many of them..) is to get something (music, an ear block) in my ear to block out the annoying conversations one may be subject to while riding the bus. Alternatively, I may consider paying the extra 20 bones for an express pass, which tends to be a more civilized experience than the 97 and 95 routes (where anything goes). At least then, I would be guaranteed a seat on the bus, and more importantly would get on the bus ina timely fashion. These days I end up waiting longer for the bus than my commute home. Yesterday I waited just over 20 min. I don't really consider where I live a strategic spot. Too far to walk, too close to probably be granted a parking spot here. I do have a Willy's and a Tim Hortons, but don't hit Hortons often.

I still await the following things: word from the classroom outreach program; reimbursement for my dental bill; my french test results. No, things don't happen overnight, or even in a matter of weeks. The cold has persisted and I am willing to wear my coat until the end of March. I hope that I can wear a lighter coat in April, as I have not had a chance to wash my main winter coat. Talk about stank.

I am working on a new sandwich. From now on, I will be exclusively dealing with rye bread sandwiches. Two advantages: it is healthier than white flour bread and it does not go as stale as white bread rolls. I also feel like an Austrian when I eat my Diplfheimer (spelling) bread.

Tonight I ate another heavy cheese laden meal. It was Nacho night at ol' Ambleside. If anyone can offer me a healthy alternative that does not involve cheese or beef but fills you up just as well, let me know. It seems that without cheese, I am nothing.

I have really been enjoying all the curling, poker, and reality shows on tv lately. This is exactly what I hoped the networks would air when I got cable. Please, what a waste of programming.

I am once again inspired in the battle to speak french. It happened recently as I was watching 110% on TQS at 11. It is a hockey show where the guys just act like bastards and overrule each other constantly. Somebody is always talking when another is speaking. P.J. Stock, a former NHLer and anglophone -who also assists Ron McLean on HNIC- was on to my amazement! He held his own too and spoke fast enough to keep up with the others. If Stock can do it, so can we.

wheew

What a snow-filled weekend. Most things that I planned to do got cancelled. On Sat, I headed down to Rideau and King street to get to the Ottawa Little THeatre where I had signed up for a class. But I did so without checking my messages and I could have saved myself the trouble as no one was there. When I got back home, I saw that the guy had left a message; three actually! I had to drown my sorrows in a Willy pizza.

I played squash later and chilled around the apt, watching the carnage unfold from my window.

Sunday is where all the action happened. After much debating I decided that I would not attend the comedy show that evening on Preston St. I so wanted to go cross-country skiing but I never did make it. As I was going in Langholm Crescent to pick up the stuff from my parents' house, the Escort got stuck in the huge ridges of snow. I was angry, furious even that these side streets were left to pots. I revved the engine for a while, and then just sat there. A nice woman offered me a shovel, and I thought my prayers had been answered. As I was done shovelling around the car, I noticed I had left my keys in the car and locked it?! I was screwed. Thankfully, Marka nd Heidi were right down the street so I went to them, called CAA, and sat down to play some hockey to fill in the time. To my amazement, the truck came within an hour. But then the trouble started. The huge CAA truck got completely stuck on the side of the snow bank. This persisted for more than an hour as the guy kept spinning his wheels, burning rubber and ultimately spinning his truck all over the place. Cars were blocked by our big commotion and it was a sight.

The guy finally jarred himself loose and pulled the escort out and then got in the locked door. I then proceeded to act as the neighbourhood snow manager, as I tried to clear the spot where I got stuck. I did this for around 40 minutes before tiring. Hats off to Mark who cleared two driveways and pushed two cars out from their stationary state. He was a sore soldier afterwards. This has truly been, "The Winter from Hell" (richard lewis)

I had a bunch of advice to post but I will s ave them for a later post. I should mention that I performed less than ideally on my big french oral test and that I am fed up with the NHL teams and their choice to alternate between what jerseys they wear. First, it was always white jersey at home (ever since I can remember). Then in ahuge marketing effort to sell more jerseys, they switched it around and started wearing their dark jersey at home. Now some teams are screwing around again with it, most notably the coyotes who wore white at home. Can't the League just institute a mandatory white at home policy, like other leagues.

Lastly, 'yaker' has skewed the results I believe by notifying me that he was keeping track of his blog appearances. I realized this after he let me know that he was going for the "triple crown". While he may not have won the triple crown, he did win the Art Ross trophy and and the Hart Trophy, so that has got to count for something.

I was caught in the monthly publication of my employer. Actually 'yaker' found it on the good ol' Intranet and sent it over. He went to the trouble of circling me with black paint. It is pretty funny and I laughed hard when I opened it up in my e-mail. Mostly because it looks like I took one in the face from a shovel.

On Monday I went over to Heidi and Mark's for delicious fajitas. Thanks guys! I then played M in NHL 08 and lost a couple times. It is a fun game, but they had a serious lapse in judgment when they elected not to feature Adam Foote on the cover. Tonight, I was supposed to go Jones' to eat with her, FB and his parents, but I decided to not make the trip due to a combination of the weather and having to be at work early on Thursday for something. This winter has been something else, and I sincerely hope we have enough left in the tank to tackle the all time snow record of 440 cm, set back in 1970-71. After today's blast, we are at 357 cm.

Random thoughts from a scattered mind:

-My front hall is still a mess and I don't care much.
-I want to buy a Mac desktop for my next system maybe. Time frame is summer I think.
-Must start planning my two possible trips in May.
-THe above two cash outlays would mean that I would probably hold off on buying a new car.
-I ran out of white paint as I was trying to finish painting the cupboards on Sunday.
-The baseball tryout was mostly a bust and nearly left me bed-ridden the next day. When I was complaining about the process to someone at work, he suggested I start my own league. Weirder things have happened.