Success!

Finally got out of Little Rock. No problems in Dallas with the exception of the airport not having free wi-fi (Fie! Fie!) Malcolm was awesome for picking me up at the airport.

Now I have to go Christmas shopping.

Kovbasa Watch 2007

And the year ends as it begins - with me sitting in an airport with a delayed flight.

Fog has delayed my flight by just long enough that I won't make my connection in Dallas unless they're delayed as well. The next flight from Dallas to Calgary doesn't leave for another 7 hours.

I hope that there's a good bar in the airport.

UPDATE #1

Flight delay has gone from 35 minutes to 55 minutes. Joy.

UPDATE #2

Flight was originally scheduled to leave at 8:55 a.m. and is now scheduled for 10:20 a.m. I've re-booked my connection. I now leave Dallas at 6:10 p.m.

Diamond Back Brewing Company makes a pretty good IPA.

UPDATE #3

Now scheduled to leave at 11:15 a.m.

I know that I shouldn't be installing certain software on this work laptop, but I'm thinking that it might have been worthwhile installing Civ IV on it for this trip.

UPDATE #4

11:35 a.m. now.

I'm beginning to wonder if I'll make that 6:10 flight...

UPDATE #5

11:55 a.m. now.

The fog's cleared a little bit. A flight for Chicago is just taking off now. I imagine that it's too much to hope that my flight gets moved up, not that it matters any more.

UPDATE #6

12:20 p.m. now.

The guy running the bar is, unsurprisingly, in a good mood. I'm kinda regretting that I didn't bring my dongle with me. I could have gotten a decent amount of work done this morning while I waited for my flight.

UPDATE #7

12:40 p.m.

Will somebody please explain to me why the 10:00 flight to Dallas gets to leave at 11:30, but my 8:55 flight keeps getting pushed back?

UPDATE #8

12:50 p.m.

The extra 10 minutes doesn't bother me. What does irk me is that the 12:15 flight to Dallas is scheduled to leave before mine.

I Just Drove Through a Disney Movie.

Driving out to location this morning, I saw a young deer standing in the ditch. I slowed down as it bounded across the road (no mujahadeer this time!) and noticed that, standing next to it was a small rabbit.

"Hmm." I mused. "Bambi and Thumper."

As I looked back at the deer, I noticed that it had a new companion on the other side of the road.

A skunk.

I kid you not.

This Isn't Right

It's raining. In December.

I'm from Calgary and used to bizarre weather, but this is freaking me out.

Wildlife

The birds are loving my back yard. It's filled with gold finches, house finches, juncos, chickadees, tons of cardinals, and the odd titmouse. It's getting expensive feeding all the greedy buggers. They can empty my feeder in about a day now. I'm wondering if it's because word's getting around in the avian world or if it's just because it's now "cold" down here. In any event it's a small price to pay for the cathartic effect of watching all the birds flitting about. I still haven't had any woodpeckers show up for my suet feeder yet, though. This surprises me since my neighbor has stated that she can't get a suet block to last overnight.

I also have armadillos. I haven't actually seen them, i've just seen the mess that they're make of my lawn while digging around for grubs overnight. I'm using deer repellent in the hopes that it drives them away - anything made with "putrescent egg white solids" (I kid you not) would drive me away. If that doesn't work, I've also had moth balls suggested to me. I really don't want to have to resort to traps (live or lethal) or shooting them.

Now, I go home and drink. Heavily. Between work and other stuff, this week can not end soon enough. Thank god I've got some chicken carcasses ready for making stock this weekend.

Oh, yeah. I also want to have Jade Raymond's children.

Figures.

I sometimes think that, if you want proof of God, then screw the banana argument. You need to look no further than the hack story that seems to be my life as of late.

Let's take the Grey Cup for example. I've already posted about my regular season woes, so I won't repeat that little bit of whining. I'll just pick up where I left off.

I actually was able to see both the western semi-final and western final. To celebrate the fact that it's been 18 years since the Riders won the cup and 10 years since they even made an appearance, I decided to splurge and bought the biggest HDTV I could fit into my entertainment center. Then I got my satellite provider to come over on friday and swap out my box so I could watch the game in HD brilliance. Great plan huh? It was all coming together.

I should have listened to Cenobyte and just flown up to watch the game with her.

The morning of "the big game" I find that I can't get the channel that is broadcasting the game in HD. In fact, I can't get a lot of the channels. It seems that my box can't pick of the signal from one of the satellites. Unfortunately, tech support told me that the soonest that they could get someone out there to fix it was the 26th. Ugh.

After about an hour of moping around and heavy drinking, I do another search of the channels, and find a Denver station that is broadcasting the game. Success! It's not HD, but it will do.

To make a long story short, I lost another satellite (and the feed associated with that station) with a couple minutes to go in the first half.

And to add insult to injury, I got that station back this morning.

Well, at least the Riders won.

Let Me Get This Straight

The Riders played 18 games this season.

I missed the first 10 because I didn't have satellite hooked up at my house. They were 8-2 at this point.

I get satellite, and manage to watch the next three games. They lose all three.

I miss the following game because I'm working out in the boonies for the weekend. The Riders win.

I manage to catch the next game. With 10 minutes left to go, Comcast stops broadcasting the game. The Riders win.

The next two games are not televised. The Riders win both.

The last game of the season is shown. I watch it. The Riders lose.

The Riders have had their best season since 1978.

They will be hosting their first playoff game since 1988.

And I was unable to watch them win once.

Nope. I'm not bitter. Not at all. Not even the tiniest bit.

Not to worry, though, fellow Rider fans. Comcast has decided to broadcast only the Eastern semi-final, so I can watch the Western one. Ergo, the Riders will win.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Success!

Most of you know that I like cooking. A lot. And the pride and joy of my cookbook collection has been my nearly complete set of Culinaria cookbooks by Konemann. I'm very happy to say that I finally managed to complete my collection over the weekend with Culinaria the Caribbean. For those not in the know, and whom actually care about this sort of stuff, the Culinaria series is only part cookbook, but also includes a lot of information about how food fits into various cultures.

In a possibly related story, I've been having reoccurring dreams over the last few nights where I'm a contestant on The Next Iron Chef, and I'm never managing to get my food done in time. It's a nice little change from those dreams where you're back in high school writing final exams for courses you never studied.

Why yes, I am a geek. Thank you for noticing.

I spent the weekend at an oilfield golf tournament. Who am I to turn down free booze, food, and golf? It does surprise me, though, that people will buy a house on the fairway of a course, not put up any sort of netting, trees, or other protection from stray balls, and then be upset when their house gets hit buy some amateur with a wicked slice.

I've also discovered that golf is a lot more entertaining when you can commit property damage. I don't feel nearly as guilty as when I hit wildlife.

Go Hogs!

Okay, so it's not exactly a Razorback, but just take a look at what was nosing around in my front yard when I went home for lunch today:



I really like all the wildlife (even if some of it isn't particularly wild) that's around my place. Personally, I think that this guy has a lot more potential for a good meal than a couple of guinea hens, but that's just me.

Green Wizard Needs Sleep Badly.

Oy. It's been a heckuva a couple of weeks. I'm currently sitting in the middle of nowhere where I've been spending most of the last two days, plus the weekend and last Friday. We do, fortunately, have satellite internet up here so I can remain somewhat entertained and busy up here between jobs. The problem lies with back to back to back 18 hour days. I'd forgotten how much they can wear a person out. If all goes well, today will be the last long day for a couple of weeks. I plan on doing a lot of sleeping tomorrow. Maybe I'll get the energy up to do some yardwork on Sunday.

Oh my exciting life. Stop the insanity. I can't keep up with the excitement.

As I mentioned, about a month back I finally broke down and got satellite television (no internet yet. I can't justify the cost for the service when I can use the connection at work five minutes away for my email and billing) so that I could watch the Riders play. They've been having a great season. Since I got my satellite, I have watched the Riders lose three times in a row. Last weekend I was too busy to actually watch the game (see above) and lo and behold - they won. This being Thanksgiving weekend in the Great White North, they are playing in the afternoon on Monday and are heavily favored to win. Of course, I'll be working down here and unable to watch the game. I've never considered myself superstitious, but I think I'm an albatross.

In any event, I actually found capon down here - which I don't recall ever seeing in Calgary - and I'm going to try roasting it up on the weekend. I wonder if it'll taste like chicken?

*ducks*
*runs*

HA!

http://wcbstv.com/business/finance_story_266174828.html

I am a petty, petty man.

Fuck GM

Some of you may be familiar with my car (a 1999 Pontiac Grand AM) and its many 'quirks'. My personal favorite is the brakes. For those not in the know, my car has a problem where it will quite often have the 'ABS' light come on and the 'Traction Control Off' light come on. This should normally only happen when conditions are extremely slippery. Instead, this happens pretty much any time the car is driven for more than 2 feet.

A fun side-effect of this is the fact that, whenever stopping, the car will release its brakes just before coming to a complete stop and roll ahead about another 10 feet before finally stopping.

I have taken the car to GM to repair this. Several times. To two separate garages. Neither garage claimed to be able to find anything wrong. The problem would disappear for about a month after coming back from the shop before rearing its ugly head again.

When I moved I decided to give the car to my parents. What they can get from selling it, they can keep. My dad, not believing in Caveat Emptor nearly as strongly as I do (or perhaps wanting to maximize the selling price of my p.o.s.), took it to a third mechanic - an independent - to get it looked at.

A 10 minute diagnosis found the problem. The bill? $1800. According to the mechanic the problem should have been obvious to anybody with a modicum of training.

To say that this disgusts me is to say that the holocaust wasn't that good an idea. I suppose that it shouldn't surprise me. As long as the car was under warranty, they weren't going to find anything wrong with it if at all possible. From what I understand, originally the problem would have been a relatively cheap fix. Now the entire brake system is going to need to be replaced. I can accept that most companies don't believe in customer service. I'd just like to see them start believing in "don't fuck over your customers". Is that too much to ask? I've still got all the receipts for the car repairs I've asked for over the years, and I know what GM will say when we confront them with it. "Oh, we're sorry you're not completely satisfied. How about $500 off of your next car purchase?". Fat fucking chance that they're ever going to have to apply that discount. I've already said that I'm never buying a GM product again (and I'll be surprised if anybody in my family ever does either), but now I'm at the "actively loathing" stage of my hatred. I would much rather brand myself with an iron than ever drive one of their overpriced disposable piles of shit ever again.

With "customer service" like this, it's no wonder that they're failing. I actually am giddy at the prospect of GM declaring bankruptcy and/or getting bought out/up. Maybe they'll merge with Ford and form a mega-corporation of suck so vast and dense that the very fabric of reality is warped. Good riddance. The next vehicle I buy will probably be a Toyota.

And as long as I'm posting. Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day.

There's a hole in my ceiling

I'm a klutz. This will probably not come as a surprise to anybody reading my blog.

About a week or so back, I finally broke down. The combination of my beloved 'Riders having their best season since before I was born, and my getting tired of only being able to watch movies on my television made me decide to get satellite service.

"Great!" Says the company. "We'll be over on the afternoon of the 11th to set it up. You have a working phone line we can plug it into?"

"Sure." Says I, not exactly recalling if there is one behind the television, but there's phone jacks all over the place so there's assuredly one in that wall.

Turns out, I don't have one, so I phoned AT&T and had them over yesterday to install a new one. I learned two things through that experience:

1.) Be careful when you're crawling through the attic that you don't step between the studs.
2.) The guy that originally wired my house is barely competent .

So, as I said, I now have a hole in the ceiling of my mud room. It could have been worse. If I'd stepped down about a foot further it would have been in my bathroom.

I guess I just can't have nice things.

Also, just to prove that not everything that lives in my back yard is poisonous, creepy, or downright disturbing, here's a pic I snapped of one guy hoofing it towards the trees.

Le Sigh

So I got back from a great trip in Calgary to find out that my electricity was, in fact, not turned off while I was away. This is good. I also discovered that my herb garden can not go for a week and a half in 100 F weather without rain or somebody watering it. This is bad. Of course it's been raining almost nonstop since I got back. Figures.

My leg's been bothering me for the last month, and I finally went to see the doctor about it. It is, as my friends and family suggested, my sciatic nerve. True to form, he suggested prescription medication immediately. Specifically Ibuprofen (in fairness, he did allow me the option of just using the off-the-shelf variety and upping the dosage) and steroids.

This is not to condemn the pharmacological world. Far from it. I believe that there are plenty of good reasons for prescribing medication. This is, however, the second time that I've gone to this doctor and had him wanting to prescribe medication for me. The first time I went in to look at my foot. When he checked my weight and blood pressure he immediately started talking about blood pressure medication. When he inquired about my sleeping habits and I told him that I wasn't sleeping well he wanted to book me into a sleep clinic/study, and when he felt my heartbeat and found a "minor irregularity" (or something like that) he wanted to book me for an MRI. I just looked at him and asked if he wasn't supposed to prescribe diet and exercise first.

In any event, the downside of this latest trip is that my BP is still too high (150/104) and he, somewhat justifiably, wants me to start taking medication. Fair enough. I'm not happy about it, but I'll do it. He also wanted me to lose more weight. This is also a fair request, and something I've been working on*. I do find it laughable that he wants me down to below 200 lb. I haven't been that light since junior high when I was actually active.

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*This is to say that I don't add salt to most of my food, avoid fast food whenever possible, and generally try to not eat as much, but don't go so far as to actually "diet".

The Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Men

It was the perfect plan. Malcolm's birthday is at the end of the month. I had him convinced that I wasn't going to be able to get back to Calgary until Christmas. His gift had been mailed. Time had, in fact, been booked off work. My plane ticked was purchased*. Siochain was keeping me informed of any party plans. I was all set to show up unannounced. And then the bugger had to ruin it by deciding to visit me the week after.

A cunning person could have lied their way out of it - stalled him for a couple of weeks so that he could make his decision after his birthday. I am not a cunning person. At the very least I'm a terrible liar. So the surprise is now ruined. Congratulations Malcolm. I hope you're happy.

In completely unrelated news, I'm going to be in Calgary from the 23rd til Sept. 2nd. Come hang out with me! I'll probably be drunk, but in case I'm not you should bring alcohol. Seriously. I need drink bad. The last few months of work have had my stress level ramping up steadily to the point where I seem to be existing in one of three states: Work, sleep, or zombie**.

___________________________________________________________
*Again I have discovered that I am completely illiterate when it comes to reading flight schedules. I thought I was landing just before noon on the 22nd. Turns out I'm landing just before midnight.

**I'm still a little squeamish about the brains, though.

Fuck Entergy*

It's 107 Fahrenheit here today, and I just went home for lunch to learn that Entergy turned off my power.

Again.

I'm sick of their crap. I got a lovely message left for me at home on the ninth stating that if I didn't call them that day to have my meter put in my name (something that they've said several times before that they had done) that they'd shut off my power. I phoned them - on the ninth - and talked to a very nice (and obviously incompetent) woman who said that the had straightened out the problem and that my power now would not be shut off.

Then I come home to this bullshit.

The lady I talked to put me on hold for a half hour, and swears that the problem is fixed for real this time. I'm sorely tempted to booby-trap my meter box some way. In any event, if this happens one more time, I think I'll engage in that wonderful American pastime of the lawsuit.
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*WARNING! This post contains somewhat stronger language than usual.

Eight Legged Freaks.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the latest specimen that I have confronted. Legs extended, it is nearly the size of my hand. Feel free to identify if you can. I only let it live long enough to take the photo.

I still haven't stopped shuddering at the thought of that thing. I think I'm going to have to nuke my house from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Aargh

One month of tests.

Down the drain.

Because somebody sent us the wrong additive.

I'm going to go home and drink now. Afterwards, I plan on working with power tools.

I'm not stupid... I'm advanced!

Oi vey. I'm having flashbacks to skool. For the last several weeks I've been trying to learn about cement (specifically, wellbore cementing). Fun stuff.

No, really, it's actually interesting. The problem arises from me having no relevant background with the stuff, and combining the learning process with the ongoing QC. It's starting to all merge into one massive mental ball of... stuff that I'm having difficulty wrapping my head around.

On the plus side, if I ever feel like pouring an extension to my patio, I'm fairly sure I can get a good deal on the supplies...

The heat comes and goes down here. And this weekend it came. I originally planned to use the weekend to get a bunch of work done around the house. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men. Saturday started off good. I managed to trim back the jungle in my yard and unloaded nearly a ton of rock so that I could set up a garden section in my yard to transplant my herbs into. Sunday was supposed to be about cleaning the house (I swear things get dirtier quicker down here than in Calgary), and installing a few organizing racks in the garage, but I woke up with a splitting headache that never really went away. When combined with the heat I ended up saying "screw it" and loafed around for the day feeling miserable. Good times. All praise the inventor of central air conditioning.

I also suspect that I have raccoons hanging around my place now. I can't be positive, but I don't know of any other animal that would actually try to steal my birdfeeder. I came out one morning to find it gone and the pole it was mounted on bent over. After much searching, I found the thing wedged underneath my back fence.

Oh! New bug alert! I haven't seen one of these since elementary school.

The second pic isn't great, but gives a better idea of the size.


No, the ash-can isn't mine. Neither is the bug. It was found up by our warehouse. I was tempted to take it home as a pet.

And in case Amy hasn't been notified of this article already: The Ultimate Knitter

Wokking in Memphis

The last few weeks have been busy, to say the least. We're starting up a new service line down here, and meeting the technical requirements have been rather trying. I've been bouncing back and forth between the two lines trying to learn how to run the new equipment while at the same time trying to keep up with issues on the frac side.

We've also had a fair number of people come down from Calgary to train us on said new equipment. It's been good to see some old familiar faces. The flip side of that, though, is that I've been eating out more than usual. This is not entirely a bad thing, as it's allowed me to find a couple of new restaurants and at least one really good pub* out and about.

After living down here for six months I finally got around to seeing Memphis. At a mere two hours away I probably should have gone sooner (say, for Memphis in May) but c'est la vie. Myself and a compatriot from the Calgary office crossed the Mighty Mississippi into the town. We visited the National Civil Rights Museum**, the Rock and Soul museum, wandered Beale Street and in general gorged ourselves on the food there***. Good times.

No. Graceland was not visited. Maybe next time.

The weather down here has actually been relatively mild. According to the locals we should be pushing 100 F daily with no rain. Instead for the most part it's been overcast, raining nearly every evening or night (we went through a week where we had hour long downpours start at 5 pm on the nose), and only about as hot as Calgary gets on its hottest days - if that. That might have started to finally change if yesterday was any indication.

And I made another ridiculous purchase. Behold!

I know. It's not a John Deere, but on the plus side I didn't have to take out a second mortgage to pay for it either. I finally got around to giving it a workout yesterday and it was... satisfying. Not necessarily fun, but definitely satisfying. The fact that it will go through the underbrush that's in the unsodded part of my lawn and not even slow down was immensely gratifying****.

So now it's poll time, ladies! Do you think my tractor's sexy? I just need one of you to say yes so I can hum "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" while I mow my lawn.

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*75 different beers on tap = much fun.
**I was quite pleased that neither myself nor my compatriot - both burly white men with extremely short hair (me) and completely shaved head (him) did not get even one strange look going through there. In all seriousness, though, if you're ever in Memphis go see it. It's definitely worth it.
***In the unlikely even that I ever open my own restaurant I'm hiring a baker. Free fresh buns will be provided to all diners.
****Seriously. Parts of it haven't been mowed in two months or more and some of the weeds growing in it are taller than me and about an inch in diameter. I figured I'd need a machete and a British accent to cut my way through it.

Happy Canada Day

Hope everybody had a good Canada Day/day off in lieu. I myself took the opportunity to take up the game of whackf##k*. Definitely an enjoyable experience and one that I'm going to endeavor to continue with. It was actually very good weather for it. We had to drive through a rainstorm to get to the course, and it threatened to rain all morning but never did. It just stayed overcast and a pretty reasonable temperature - if still somewhat humid. It's good to finally have another hobby that actually requires physical exertion. I went to a doctor a couple of weeks back and wash shocked - SHOCKED I tell you - to find out how bad a shape I'm in.

Anyhoo, after said game I had a barbecue for some ex-pats down here helping us set up our latest operation. I've discovered that I really enjoy cooking over charcoal. It's something that I never did in Calgary - we always used propane - but I find it quite funl. Pizza and flatbeds were a blast. The smoked ribs I cooked for Canada Day turned out great - especially for a first attempt. I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of the summer I'm trying to bake cookies on it.

And I ended off the evening with fireworks. Hopefully the neighbors weren't too confused by them going off a few days before the fourth of July. I knew that fireworks were legal and a lot more available down here, but I was surprised by the sheer quantity. It seems like every mile there's another carnival tent stocked selling "Crazy Larry's Black Market Fireworks" or such. I guess that it's a good thing it is so damp down here. If it was drier one spark would cause a lovely chain reaction of ammo dumps.

My house and yard slowly continue to come together. I decided a while back to hire landscapers to finish my lawn. It doesn't need much - just to be leveled, have all the weeds killed, have a bunch of trees planted and then be seeded or sodded - but it's a large enough job, and it's hot enough here that I figured it would be better to get it done right the first time. Besides, the ground is hard enough around here that I'm going to definitely need some heavy equipment if I want to get it done before next year. I can't dig down more than a couple of inches with a spade.

So all in all, life ain't going too terribly bad down here. I seem to have pulled myself out of the malaise that has been affecting me for the last few months - whether this unnatural cheerfulness will actually continue I don't know, so I'm going to milk it for all it's worth now.
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*Those who are actually good at the game more commonly refer to it as "Golf".

Going Buggy

The flies. They're everywhere.

I hear them in the distance. Always buzzing. Always taunting. So smug.

They stay just out of range. Daring me to swat them before flying off. Even if I kill one, two more take its place. They circle my head at night, keeping me awake. They don't just seek to defeat me. They intend to drive me insane. But I won't let them. I'm too strong for that. I'll find a way.

What's that, mother?

Burn the house, you say?

Yes. That will stop them.

Uninvited Guests

Last week I discovered that I had a new house guest squatting on my front porch.


With a little prodding, I was able to get the little buggers ID.


I initially left him/her/it alone but then realized that it probably wasn't a good idea leaving a poisonous spider on my doorstep, and gave it the boot.

It's funny, but it's little things like that that really make me realize that I'm not in Kansas (or Canada) anymore. The heat, the humidity? Annoying, but they don't really stand out, for some reason (I notice them, of course. They just don't scream to me: "Hey! You're in Arkansas!") Ditto for the accents. The wildlife, however, is another matter. The other night I also found this lovely specimen in my backyard.


The strange part is that I was more disturbed by the katydid than the black widow. Bugs of all type (spiders especially) creep me out, but I was all "Kewl! A black widow in MY house!" .

Also saw a flock of vultures on the side of the road, something else that I'd never seen live before. Huge birds. Honestly though, I don't know how armadillos aren't an endangered species yet. You can practically measure you driving distance by counting the dead ones on the road.

Leaving Las Vegas (And Getting There, And Staying There)

Day 1

Due to a combination of excitement about seeing my buds and paranoia about sleeping through my alarm and missing my flight I didn’t sleep at all the night before my flight.

Body: “Wanna sleep.”

Brain: “Shut up. We’re not going to miss the flight because you oversleep.”

Body: “But I’m really tired. Just a few minutes please?”

Brain: I said shut up. Now have another coffee before I really give you something to cry about.”

I managed to drag my butt to the airport and make it to Vegas (via Memphis) with minimal trouble. Arriving in Vegas I very quickly realized how much I’ve become accustomed to the humidity in Arkansas.

It’s strange, really. I might have grown up in a relatively large city, but in the last few months I’ve gotten really used to the solitude and quiet of a small town. Compared to that, Vegas felt both incredibly real and surreal both at the same time. Still, I was impressed at how the city managed to incorporate walkways everywhere so that pedestrian and automotive traffic have as little effect as possible on each other. I was also impressed/surprised/stunned by the amount of construction going on. Buildings going up all over the place, and each one with an army of construction workers and equipment.

One thing that did disappoint me was the real lack of patios to just sit and drink at in the afternoon on the Strip. Plenty of places indoors to drink or grab drinks to go, but almost nothing that allowed me to take a load off of my rapidly aching feet and relax with a drink. Still, I eventually found a place to grab lunch and beer before continuing my exploring.

And so I wandered up and down the strip for a couple of hours. Looked around the casinos, checked out what was showing where and generally tried to get my bearings. I was rapidly feeling the effect of my lack of sleep, combined with the heat and the alcohol. I was also discovering that I’m not used to walking for long periods of time, as my blisters were starting to attest.

I eventually headed back to the hotel and amused myself for the rest of the day by gambling and checking out the casino and restaurants. I only dropped $100 at the blackjack table. The dealer was actually very nice about it. After watching me make some stupid bets she looked at me and asked if this was my first time playing blackjack (it wasn’t, but the last time was a few years back and I had some coworkers at the table helping me out). She then proceeded to explain what a decent strategy was and point out when I was about to make a stupid bet. I still lost money, but it took longer.

Finally, my buds arrived. Siochain knocked me off my feet with a big hug, which is only fair since I do the same so often. We grabbed something to eat and then headed back to the hotel where I discovered that my blisters had blisters. I crashed immediately, and managed to keep them awake all night with my snoring.

Day 2

Up with the dawn, and feeling much more awake, we all moseyed on down to a café in the casino for breakfast and enjoyed some incredibly good coffee (remember Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction? Yeah. That good).

We then, much to the protest of my feet, began exploring. Just up and down the strip. Siochain got her picture taken with the surliest Elvis impersonator ever. We hit the shops in Planet Hollywood and the Venetian, where M picked up a very stylin’ hat. I also discovered that somewhere along the way Siochain apparently became part lizard. Seriously, the girl was freezing in the air conditioned casinos and it took here about 10 minutes in the sun to warm up. That’s just not right.

I loved the paint scheme inside the Miracle Mile at PH. If you haven’t seen, they’ve done the ceiling up like the sky, which doesn’t sound too impressive until you’ve actually seen it with the lighting and realized how realistic it looks. It’s also rather confusing when you spend a couple hours in there, thinking that it’s around sunset and then walk outside and find that it’s still noon.

I imagine that to most people, going to Vegas and not gambling or seeing a lot of shows or exhibits seems nearly heretical. For me, though, I really couldn’t care about most of that (There’s a few shows that I want to see there, but that’s about it). I’m just happy that I was able to hang out with my friends and not have to worry about being at X place at time Y.

The water show at the Bellagio is pretty impressive. I’ve seen it in videos but they really don’t do it justice. The scope of it is pretty massive. I also find it very humorous that, in a city in the middle of the desert that so many of the casinos have massive water shows.

Unbeknownst to Siochain, her beloved Treasure Island show had changed since she was last in Vegas. No longer is it a swashbuckling adventure with pirates fighting each other and falling into the water. Now it’s been replaced by “The Sirens of Treasure Island”. A more adult themed show, chock full of scantily clad women and single entendres (“I’ve lured many a salty seaman into my cove” – brilliant!). And the songs? Pure poetry. With lines like “You take a little bit of sugar and a little bit of honey and you shake it… Shake it!” Shakespeare had better watch out. The expression on Siochain’s face was better than the show itself.

Day 3

Hit the Bodies exhibit at the Tropicana. Not exactly my cup of tea, being as squeamish as I am, but still fascinating from a medical perspective. M & Siochain really liked it though, which is the important part. If I haven’t mentioned it already, I really couldn’t give a crap where I was, as long as I was with my friends.

Did some more wandering. The nerve endings on my feet were pretty much fried by that point, so my feet weren’t doing to bad. Fortunately, the rest of my legs were burning by then so I didn’t get too comfortable.

The highlight of the day was definitely O. It was the first and so far only Cirque de Soleil show that I’ve seen, and was a hell of an introduction. I’ve seen clips of Cirque here and there but, like the water show at the Bellagio, the videos don’t do Cirque justice. Of course, the Bellagio show doesn’t even come close to comparing to O. Seriously, go see it and for the love of god spend the extra money and get good tickets – something in the first few rows. I would quite happily go back down to Vegas just to see the show again. Each act in it blew me away more than the last one and left me thinking “there’s no way that they’ll be able to top that”. Of course, they did manage to top it. I find it amusing to note that there were parts of the show that could be considered boring due to the fact that they were merely incredible, as opposed to mind-bogglingly stunning like the rest of the show. It’s not unlike what M was saying while leaving the show – It made Vegas seem mundane by comparison. Watching O was actually an emotional experience. If you see it and aren’t moved, I declare that you are not human.

Day 4

The last day was a pretty big blur. We basically just fit a few last minute things into the trip – nothing special – and then went to the airport. Saying goodbye this time, though, was infinitely harder than a few months ago. I think that the last time I left I was too distracted by work and my impending house purchase to really appreciate how much I missed these two. I’ve known them for twenty years now and they’re more than family to me, they are a part of me. Fortunately, I guess, I was giving a temporary reprieve from my depression while I discovered that my place was going to be an hour and a half late, forcing me to miss my connection in Dallas. After much frustration, I decided to head to Dallas on my flight and get the first plane from there to Little Rock in the morning rather than overnight in Vegas. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t sleep much in Dallas either and I’m still trying to get my body back on time.

And that’s pretty much it. I had a blast with my friends, but I’ve got to be the only person on the planet that can go to Vegas, not lose loads of cash, and still manage to be depressed when I leave.

I miss 'em already.

My Feet Hurt... With Destiny!

Back. Very tired. Vegas was interesting. "O" was indescribable. Seeing my buds was phenomenal. Flight home was not so good. Plane was delayed and I missed my connection and overnighted in Dallas. Very tired right now and busy getting stuff ready for work tomorrow. Will write a more in depth review soon.

Viva Las Vegas!

There's nothing quite like a 16 hour work day to prep you for a vacation.

Of course, there's also nothing quite like learning how to read, which would have saved me from finding out last night that my plane tickets land me in Vegas at 9:52 a.m., and my friends land at 9:00 p.m.

Well, I guess I have to keep myself entertained for 11 hours. I hope I can find something to do.

The Train Keeps A Rollin'

And I'm not sure how to get off. Not that I want to bail out or anything, it's just that it's starting to get really busy down here and next week's even busier. If I'd known that about a month ago when I booked my vacation I probably wouldn't have done so, but it's probably best that I didn't know because I need a vacation in the worst possible way right now.

I've finally got blinds for my house. This is good because a.) Nobody needs to see my pasty-white fat ass, (not that I make a habit of wandering around my place nekkid); b.) There are a fair number of children in the neighborhood and I really don't fancy being thrown in jail for accidentally exposing myself to kids (again, not planning on wandering around naked); and c.) I like sleep. I really like it. I don't like waking up on my days off as the sun begins to peek over the horizon. I'm really looking forward to being able to sleep in tomorrow. Of course I'm now able to indulge in my habit of waking up at the crack of noon, which is not a good thing either.

In addition to looking for a few other major appliances, now that I can afford them, I'm also trying to find a landscaping company down here. I dont' really want much done to my yard - just lay some grass down and plant a dozen or so fruit trees. The problem is that the yard, as it stands, is currently a pretty good disaster. The non-sodded area (probably around a half-acre) doesn't have much for topsoil. We're right down to the red clay already, and while stuff seems to grow pretty well in it (the weeds love it, at least), I'm guessing that it's going to need to be turned and loamed before I can actually get it properly seeded. I tried digging into it on the weekend, and that's pretty much a no-go as well. Thus, I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll have to hire contractors to do all the work in the hot sun while I sit in the shade sipping fruity alcoholic drinks. Maybe my guild complex will kick in, but I think I can kick it out easily enough.

I've also discovered that I might have an addiction. When I first planned on moving down here, my dad, a relatively avid amateur birder, was thrilled at the prospect of all the different birds down here (he's still hoping that I'll take a trip into southern Arkansas and find an Ivory-billed Woodpecker). I pretty much shrugged off the possibilities. I don't mind birds, but for the most part I find them pretty forgettable - pigeons, magpies, gulls, etc. In any event, since the first time I saw my house when it was still under construction, I've seen a few colorful birds in the backyard. The blue jays were nice, and seemed slightly brighter than the ones I've seen in Calgary and Red Deer, but it was the Cardinals that really made me go "Oooh! Nifty!". About a week or so after I moved in, I bought a feeder and some black sunflower seed which, according to the bag, is supposed to attract nearly every type of bird around these parts. Sure enough, more jays and cardinals showed up. And a few Mourning Doves, and some sort of yellow finch thingy showed up once.

So I decided to expand. I bought more feeders - a finch feeder with nyjer seed and a hummingbird feeder. The finch feeder seems pretty devoid of customers, but the hummingbird feeder attracted a couple in less then a day. Then I bought a bird bath. I also bought a bird guide, but haven't had much luck identifying most things. The birds don't tend to stay still long enough, not that this really bothers me. I'm just worried that I won't stop - or worse, I'll expand. First the feeders and bird bath. Then bird houses. Before you know it, I'll have descended into madness and purchased the dreaded lawn gnomes.

I've also had a bit of fun with cooking down here. Not the style itself (although I enjoy the act of cooking and am really looking forward to getting a barbecue) but the ingredients themselves. In addition the the fresh fruit that I'm enjoying gorging myself on, I'm having fun with new and interesting things. I cooked with okra for the first time the other day. It was, suffice to say, an interesting experience. I had no idea how slimy that stuff got when when chopped up, even before it was cooked. I'm also having fun with collard greens. No idea what will be coming up in the future. With the weather as hot as it is down here (is everyone in Calgary enjoying the snow that they got yesterday?) cooking is less enjoyable. Raw fruits and vegetables are much more my speed at this temperature.

But for now, I get to relax. I've got a long weekend and a vacation coming up, and even get to enjoy them for the most part for a change. Block party tonight. My company's having its Grand Opening tomorrow, Sunday off, Memorial day Monday off (a holiday off in the field? Inconceivable!). Work Tuesday (if I'd realized that it was a long weekend I'd have booked it off as well), then it's off to Vegas on Wednesday for 4 fun filled days that I plan to not be able to remember. I'm meeting up there with Big Daddy M and Siochain - my brother from another mother and my sister from another mister so to speak, both of whom need to remember that no matter how old they feel, they're still younger and better looking (and saner) than me. They both also need to eat a sammich or two.

I'm Rich!

The money finally came through (thanks dad)! I can finally pay off bills and loans and buys stuff again! I can furnish my house! I'm solvent again! I CAN BUY AND SELL YOUR VERY SOULS! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

But for now. I think I'll celebrate. Who's up for root beer?

This Is No Longer Funny.

They turned off the power to my house.

Again.

To say that I'm unhappy is a slight understatement. Apparently they were trying to shut off the power to house 111. There's only one problem - house 111 doesn't exist. I'm in 113, next to me is 107.

Fortunately for the power company, they have hired creative people. If they can't shut off the power to 111, I guess the nearest house will do.

Idjits.

I Love A Rainy Night

I'm right now enjoying the hardest rainstorm that I've ever seen. I don't think that I've ever seen it rain so hard for so long. The water level in the drainage ditch in our yard (my company's) has risen about 4 feet in the last half hour. It's kewl. The best part is that the weather is still warm. Definitely a nice change from the cold rain in Calgary.

(BTW, the pic is not from here, but is still a relatively accurate depiction).

Weekend was decently enjoyable. We've been having weather in the high 70's - low 80's (that's mid to high 20's in real temperature). I discovered both a farmer's market and the asian food market (I doubt that there's more than one), so life is somewhat more tolerable now. Spent the weekend happily cooking away and doing a little more unpacking. And discovering the sheer joy that is the mojito. Seriously. I think I'm through with Gin & Tonic as my summertime drink.

On the money front, I'm still lacking in funds. Apparently one of the checks that I wrote to myself was sufficiently large enough to warrant further scrutiny. Surprisingly, the hastily scrawled signature on my cheque did not match the one in my account when I opened it about 20 years ago (and was likely told to sign neatly and clearly). I've therefore taken the drastic step of asking my folks for help. I'm sending them some cheques to cash and then they can send me a US money order for the proper amount. I have a good feeling about this. It could work.

That just leaves me with the problem of the other, slightly smaller cheque that I wrote to myself. The money for it disappeared from my Canadian bank account 2-3 weeks ago but has yet to appear down here. My bank here is saying the 15th of May. I'm saying that if it's not there by then I'll look at suing.

It occurs to me now that I might have been able to transfer the funds just as easily through my pay-pal account. Anyone out there that can give me a reason that it wouldn't work?

More as it develops, but for now, I think I'll head home.

I Have Little Choice But to Laugh.

My next door neighbor moved out last week. This is relevant.

On Tuesday I came home for lunch and found that my water had been turned off. I phoned the water company, and it turns out the person they had sent over to turn off my neighbors water turned off mine instead. No biggie.

Last night I came home and found my house without power. We have been having thunderstorms for the last couple of days, so I phoned the power company to see if it was an outage. They said that there was a power outage and that they expected it to be restored by 8:00 that night.

Around 8:00, with the sun rapidly setting and my power still not back on, I phoned the power company back. While talking to them I realize that my other neighbors have power. After going through various rigamarole and discovering that my circuit box has been locked by the company, they agreed to send somebody out. About an hour later they came by, unlocked the box and turned my power back on, mentioning that the yellow tag on the lock means that the power has been deliberately shut off to this residence for some reason. When I phoned the company today to confirm the status of my account, I confirmed that they had in fact shut off the power to the wrong house.

I suppose it's a good thing that I don't have any more utilities.

Where Does the Time Go?:

Is April nearly over already?

The last month has streaked by far to fast. I am now unpacked and semi-moved in to my new place. I say "semi-moved in" because there are still a few relatively important (though not essential, I suppose) appliances and pieces of furniture that have yet to be purchased. Thanks BMO for attending the Air Canada school of customer support.

I suppose that the blame shouldn't be put entirely at BMO's feet. I should have been wary enough to make sure that I had the paperwork all taken care of before I left Calgary. I'm also not too thrilled at my current bank down here right now. When I learned that I couldn't arrange to wire my money from Calgary without being at the BMO in person I wrote myself a couple of cheques. The bank here said it would take two, maybe three weeks to get them deposited. We're now into the fourth week, and I found out on Friday that they've changed their tune and it's now 4 - 6 weeks. My rage is endless.

Anyhow, on to happier matters. As I said, I've unpacked. I suppose it speaks volumes about my cooking geekery that it took me longer to unpack my kitchen than the rest of my house combined. I actually managed to get through the extended version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy while doing it and still have more kitchen unpacking to do.

Also, I found that unpacking is a lot like Christmas morning with all of the niceties thrown out the window. The movers packed everything up themselves, so I had no idea what anything was. It was somewhat fun to try to guess what the heck most of the stuff was as I unwrapped it, and more than a little liberating to go "why the hell did I keep this?" and throw some of the stuff in the trash.

Weather down here is improving. We went through a cool snap last week (I think it was last week) but it's been getting better since then with mid to high 20's since. The humidity's also been rising relatively steadily. It's not bad now, but I imagine in another month I'll be soaking.

Of course, with the heat and humidity comes bugs. Mosquitoes haven't been too bad down here but they've got some pretty good sized beetle-type things that are everywhere. There's also a lot of spiders. Personally, I don't have too much of a problem with insects in small amounts, as long as they stay out of my house. It seems like every day, though, there's 3 or four spiders or smaller versions of the beetle-things crawling around in my place. I keep hoping that I've killed the last of them, but every time I come home there's another one. Fortunately, I haven't woken up with a Brown Recluse spider on me yet.

The weather also seems conducive to growing plants. I took some time last week to get my herb garden planted (I'm going to wait until I get my money transferred down here before I work on the orchard). So far, only the cilantro isn't doing well. Not too bad considering my past history with plants. I do wonder about the coincidence that I first started seeing rabbits in my back yard about a day after I got my herbs. I'm not too worried though. I'm waiting for the little buggers to try chewing on the serrano peppers that I'm growing.

Last weekend was one of the few that I've had down here completely off. I celebrated by stocking my fridge & liquor cabinet and spending the entire weekend cooking. It was glorious. Of course, now I have to do something with all the food in there. I'll have to think these plans through a little more thoroughly next time.

Home Sweet Home

Signed the papers earlier today. I am now officially in financial debt. I can't really move in quite yet (the moving truck broke down in Denver, so my stuff won't get here until tomorrow night or Thursday morning), but I don't mind. It will give me time to start on the landscaping - I finally took a really good look at where the survey flags are and suddenly realized how huge my yard is. As a matter of fact, I imagine most of my spare time will be going into landscaping. I'm actually looking forward to stuff like the planting the trees and setting up my herb garden. It's the weeding that's really going to try my patience. I've got over a half-acre of weeds & quackgrass laughing at me.

And one little private message to the Bank of Montreal before I forget: F**k you. I've had enough of the run-arounds, lies, and outright screwjobs. Thanks to you it'll be about 2 more weeks before I can actually get some appliances into my house. 2 more weeks of restaurant food. Thank you so much.

It's amazing what a difference a week can make. During the time I was back in Calgary the weather down here has improved dramatically. We're still getting a fair amount of cloud cover (and rain), but the temperature is much warmer - around 20 - 25 C during the day, and warm enough at night that I still don't need a jacket. Not too bad. It's also noticeably more humid now, but nothing I can't handle*.

I did the inspection on my house the other day. I'm pretty happy with the finished product, all-in-all. There are just a few minor fixes to take care of** - scuffs and such. Everything's shaping up for me to be able to close on it by the end of the week. My stuff's scheduled to arrive on the weekend (which for once, I won't be working), so with any luck I can call myself moved in by this time next week. We've caught up with our customer's schedule at work and in fact jumped ahead of him, so I've actually got a slow week coming up, which is not a bad thing in my opinion. The 80 hour work weeks were starting to get to me.
__________________________________________________________
* I don't doubt that August will be a different story.
** Who forgets to make a vent for the dryer?

No Turning Back Now.

Well, terms have been agreed upon, my apartment is packed and on it's way down, and I'm back in Arkansas awaiting it all.

Thanks to everyone out there. A week was not nearly enough time to say goodbye to you all, so get your buts down here to visit me, dammit!

One Last Hurrah.

If I've ever experienced anything more depressing in my life than packing up for this move, I blocked it from my mind long ago.

Honestly, the deliberate act of going through all my accumulated junk and deciding "That goes with me. That gets thrown out. X can have that, (s)he can make better use of it than me" is less like getting ready for a garage sale and more like getting ready for my own funeral. Unnecessarily morbid? Possibly, but true nonetheless.

Sweet Relief - Finally

Finally, I get a full day off. I've been working 12 hour days for the last two weeks, and only been taking it slightly easier on the weekends. I was finally able to clock out at around 3:00 yesterday. First stop: Pulaski County and the nearest liquor store.

Why are you looking at me like that? I don't have a problem. I can quit any time I want to. I just don't want to right now.

My time down here has been completely exhausting. I knew that starting up a new district would be rough, but I didn't know how rough it would be. Fortunately, more wrinkles are being ironed out every day, so hopefully before long I'll actually be able to do some serious relaxing. Right now I'm so burnt out that I'm not really in the mood to do much of anything. I had originally planned on going golfing today, but instead I moseyed down to Little Rock again and then back home to kick back with a beer or two. Or three.

House stuff moves slowly. My boss has been down here helping with getting us off the ground and has been more busy than I have, so there hasn't been much progress made on the official transfer paperwork yet. This puts a bit of a delay in the purchasing process. It's been frustrating, but I am assured that the paperwork will be ready by early this week.

And now that I've actually had a little bit of free time the loneliness has kicked in. It never ceases to amaze me that, despite the fact that I tend to be pretty antisocial, I tend to be a relatively social creature. Just because I don't talk much doesn't mean I don't enjoy hanging out with my friends. My friends that are roughly 2000 miles away now.

This has the potential to be a rough few years, I think.

Sweet Zombie Jesus, I Need A Drink!

What a week. I'd rather not go into details, but suffice it to say the QC portion of my job has not been easy. I've been working late all week and yesterday as well. I finally got this afternoon off and took the opportunity to drive into Little Rock and see what it's like.

Honestly it wasn't that bad, although I only made it to the River Market. Unfortunately, it appears that Arkansas doesn't believe in staying open on Sundays. Outside of the restaurants and big chain stores nothing was open - and that includes the liquor stores. At least I managed to get out and away from the shop and hotel

So I'm buying a house. I've managed to, in my spare time, find a wonderful little place about five minutes west of town. Construction still isn't done, but it should be ready by April first. A nice little one floor place with a decent kitchen and a huge yard - nearly an acre. By the standards around here that's actually pretty tiny, but you can't get smaller yards around here. Everybody wants huge yards and swimming pools etc.

Outside of that, there's not a lot happening. My back's feeling better - not great, but not nearly as bad as it was. Thanks to all for your support and suggestions.

Maybe It's a Sign

So I wake up this morning feeling fine. Go grab a shower and shave. Still feel fine. Grab breakfast. Still fine. Go back to my hotel room to clean up and go to work and that's when my back explodes.

Some of you may know that my back tends to be sore on occasion. This is not what I'm talking about. I've felt this kind of back pain once before in my life, but at least that time it could be traced to some actual events that could conceivably cause such pain. This just came out of nowhere. Right now I can barely walk. Even sitting/lying down is painful.

I'm beginning to think that there might be an invisible sky wizard somewhere who's (a) pissed off at me for not believing in him, and (b) doesn't want me down here.

Oh well. At least I'm not expected to do any heavy lifting. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go whimper in pain for a while.

I've Been to Beebe. Now I Can Die.

Doesn't quite have the same ring as John Wing's classic, but it's still relatively apt at describing the size of the town.

Size aside, Beebe is a wonderful little town. The weather is beautiful - around 15 degrees during the day and probably 5 - 10 this evening. The people are incredibly friendly too. Apparently a lot of people are ecstatic about us moving into town - they've been looking for something to give the town a boost and we're something of a godsend. A group of the locals threw us a BBQ tonight. It was a great little party and definitely made me more comfortable with prospect of moving here. I'm relatively sure that if I let the locals know that I'm single I'd have a pile of photo's of their daughters before I could blink.

I'm as yet undecided on whether to let them know.

On The Road Again

And like some Bizarro Beverly Hillbillies episode, I hop into an SUV loaded with computer & lab equipment and drive to Arkansas. Wish me luck.

Maybe It Was Something I Ate

Go figure. I'm in Colorado for less than a day before I come down with another cold. At least the plane wasn't especially late this time. Still, it hasn't helped my sleeping schedule.

Grand Junction's a nice little city. It's nestled in the West Slope and reminds me a lot of the B.C. side of the Rockies. The company's put me up in a very nice little condo while I'm here. Fully furnished, they even left beer in the fridge for me.*

The job out here is a lot more like what I'll be doing down in Arkansas, apparently. That means less QC and more job analysis, which makes me a lot happier. The only "problem" (if there could be one) is that the jobs tend to be a ways out of town (unlike Platteville, where they're only about 15 minutes away). It's taken some doing to get used to waking up before 4:00 again. Fortunately, Arkansas jobs should be a lot closer (more on the line of the Platteville jobs than the GJ ones) so I can still get my beauty sleep.

And I'm seriously thinking of buying a house down there. My original plan was (and still is) to serve my 3 - 5 year sentence down there before being paroled to something else - maybe back to Calgary, maybe somewhere else. I really thought that it would be too much of a hassle to start dumping money into a house for that short a period of time.

Then I talked to a few of the people who have been house-hunting down there. When houses in Arkansas are a fraction (ie: 25% or less) of the cost of what they are in Calgary it makes them a lot more appealing. Especially when I consider the other intangibles - such as since the housing boom hasn't hit yet the new houses actually have a degree of competence in their construction.

So yeah, as if I didn't have enough on my mind already, I'm going to be house hunting too. Apparently I have a masochistic streak.

__________________________________________________________

* It was Bud Light and Zima, but it's the thought that counts.

Now with 20% less cynicism

Ugh. Silly week. The one saving grace to the company dragging out this transfer is that it's giving me more time to get stuff done at a more sane pace. As it was I feel like I've been running around like the proverbial chicken with his head cut off, and I recognize that I haven't even been working excessively hard.

Ah well, it could be worse. I haven't been electrocuted by a traffic signal yet (way to go Clark!).

It's definitely good to be back in Calgary, even if it's only for a week. I know that I've been missing my friends, but seeing them all again kinda makes it worse in a way. I can only imagine how I'll be feeling in another month or so when I finally move down officially and there isn't a scheduled trip back in the near future.

Still, as I said, it was very good to see everyone. The parties, the well-wishing, the alcohol was all good. And I've finally seen Deliverance.

Hoo boy.

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Update!

Well, the more things change, blah blah blah.

Hashed over some details with my U.S. boss yesterday and we came up with this plan:

Home to Calgary tomorrow (Yay!)
Have a week in Calgary to get personal/professional stuff sorted out.
Fly out to Denver on the 18th. Overnight in Denver.
Drive out to our Grand Junction office on the 19th.
Spend 19th - 21st in Grand Junction.
Drive back to Denver on the 21st. Overnight in Denver.
22 & 23: Drive to Arkansas (cue Dueling Banjos).
Work in Arkansas until March 16th.
March 17th Fly back to Calgary.
Take a week off and evaluate on whether I really want to do this.

So that's how it looks for now. I still find it really funny how hesitant the company is to put me down here permanently. I've spent the last 2 months mentally preparing myself for this. I'm not going to back out now (even if I don't like the job).

Counting down the days...

Well, I've got a bit of an update on my situation.

As it stands right now, I'm back in Calgary on Friday - no surprise there. I've had the plane ticket for about a month now. The date for our first job in Arkansas is still somewhat transient, however, so there's no firm date yet for what time I need to be down there for yet. All signs point to them trying to get everything rolling around the 21st now. My U.S. boss would like to give me at least a full week in Calgary to tie up personal things there before I head back to Denver for hopefully a couple of days of training out in Grand Junction. After that I drive to Arkansas (company vehicle has to get there some how, so it might as well be me transporting it).

The annoying thing is that my boss confessed that the powers that be don't want to make anything official until I've been down in Arkansas for about a month. I can understand where they're coming from - they don't want to move me down there only to move me back a few weeks later because I've decided I don't like the job/people/heat/humidity/etc. Because of that I'll have a permanent address in Calgary for March as well. As annoying as it is, though, it's very relieving to actually have them tell me that so I have an idea of how this move is proceeding.

Now all I have to do is deal with the soul-crushing realization that I'm exiling myself to the ass end of the world.

I'm not dead yet!

Ugh. What a week. I've been stupidly busy trying to learn all of our QA/QC procedures down here, in addition to familiarizing myself with the equipment we use for the large jobs down here that are virtually nonexistant in Canada. It's going quite well - the first day was chaotic but I think I've got most of the details pegged now.

The brutal part about the week has been the cold that I came down with on Tuesday. I should have probably expected it, but it still took me by surprise. Long days (typically getting back home no earlier than 8 pm) combined with little sleep were doing wonders for my sanity. I spent the weekend inside to recover. While this would normally be a sensable precaution, a severe lack of entertainment options nearly did me in. The only books I had were for the APEGGA exam - dry reading at the best of times, which the weekend was not. No internet access (otherwise I would have updated this sooner) left me with little else to resort to but daytime television.

The horror.

At least the Food Network down here hasn't resorted to showing restaurant renovation shows for 90% of their content. Between that and Discovery channel I was able to survive - barely.

So here I sit in the lab at work. We can't work until later this afternoon, since that's the soonest we'll have fluid samples for tomorrow's well. This morning promises to pass by very slowly...

im in ur country steelin ur jobz

Gah.

I'm actually in Denver now. To give you some idea of how shocking this revelation is supposed to be, allow me to run you through yesterday:

12:00: Arrive at Calgary International Airport for my 3:15 flight. I arrived early because I had no idea how long it would take to process my work visa.

12:15: Clear check in. Notice that the flight is delayed by 20 minutes. No big deal.

12:45: Get my work visa processed. That was quick!

1:00: Clear customs.

1:15: Notice that flight has now been pushed back to 5:00. Sigh. It was to be expected, since everything was going so well.

2:30: Notice that flight has been pushed back to 5:45. Get irked.

3:00: Flight is pushed back to 5:55.

3:30: Informed that our plane has just left Denver. They hope to land by 5:30 and take off by 6:00.

5:30: Plane lands in Calgary.

6:00: Board plane.

6:30: Plane departs Calgary.

8:35: Plane lands in Denver and promptly remains on the runway since there isn't any place to park it.

9:20: Plane actually docks at the airport.

9:45: Pick up luggage.

10:20: Finally get a cab (first time in my life I've exited an airport and there isn't a cab to be found). Too bad the cabbie has no idea how to get to Longmont, where my apartment apparantly is.

11:30: Finally get to my apartment. Dispite my misgivings, I don't think that the driver took my on a cross country tour. It took a fair amount of time for me to get back into downtown this morning.

Will post more soon (hopefully), but I'm now awash in a new environment with many new things to learn.

On My Way

And, with visa papers in hand I'm ready to start the next leg of my journey. Hopefully customs will be somewhat obliging to processing everything and I'll actually make my flight.

Actually, I should probably be more concerned about getting back to Calgary in February. I have a history of problems returning to Canada from the US on business with my company. Some of you may remember such memorable tales as "Stuck at the Coutts border on a holiday." and "Snowed in for two days in Denver."

On a more serious note, some of you may have noticed me seeming somewhat out of sorts over the last few days/weeks. Suffice it to say that I've had a lot on my mind with this move coming up. None of it has really come up to the surface yet, so it's just been bubbling away in my subconscious. The end result has been me being more than a little distracted to everything, and I just wanted to thank you all for all of your support since I first thought about doing this...

...and also for the copy of Deliverance from the guys at work. If I didn't have enough reservations already...

CMHPG and Zirconium and Borate oh my!

My brain is full.

I've spent the last two days getting a crash course on our U.S. chemical systems. Granted there are less of them than we use up here, but it was still a lot to take in since even the Southern versions of the systems I'm familiar with are tweaked. Fortunately, it's not like I'm expected to memorize them, just become familiar with them.

I managed to get a little more info on my expected duties in Arkansas as well. Essentially, when something goes wrong, people will be looking to me. Not for solutions, just for someone to hang.

Okay, it's not really that bad - I won't be completely isolated, but I've still been left wondering if I'm making the right choice.

Things About Calgary I Will Not Miss #1:

The Drivers.

From the first day I got my drivers license I've been shocked by the incredible depths of stupidity that they sink to on a daily basis. After 15 years driving here you'd think that I'd be used to it and not be able to be surprised, but sure enough every time I go on the road (and most times I'm walking) somebody pulls some stunt that puts them on my list of people that must be eliminated from the gene pool (along with their offspring) for the good of humanity.

Ciao.

Well, Siochain's moved up to Edmonton officially now.

Take care of yourself up there.

Buttery Goodness

It's amazing what one can do with 1.7 pounds of butter, 3.3 cups of sugar, 1.25 cups of rum, 16 eggs, some various other ingredients and a half-decent kitchen.

The result (pictured left) is a Frankfurter Kranz - AKA a Frankfurt Crown, AKA a Frankfurt Heart Attack - that I baked for my mom's birthday the other day.

That's right. The boy can actually cook. Try to get over the shock please. All you ladies of the Great White North had your chance. You could have had a piece, but you all decided that you were too good for me. Well, it's too late now! The Rocky Mountain Polar Bear is packing up and moving down South! The ladies of Arkansas get to sample his kitchen! Who's laughing now?

Errm. I mean, Happy Birthday Mom.

Merry Christmas!

To all those celebrating the Orthodox Christmas, Merry Christmas.

Just finished the traditional 12 course meal at my folks house. It was scaled down, of course, since it was just the three of us.

Still, I was surprised to learn that salt and pepper count as a course each...

I want my Beebe back, Beebe back, Beebe back... ribs

Well, everything seems to be moving along quickly. I start doing a little bit of chemical training here on the 18th, then after a couple of days I head down to Denver for a month of field training and familiarization with the software, equipment, and people. Finally, by the 19th of February I move on down to the location of our new district office - beautiful Beebe, Arkansas (Population: 5000). Located just 30 miles Northeast of Little Rock, Beebe is noted for having more churches (18) than fast-food restaurants (17). Sounds lovely right? Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that it's located in a dry county?

What the hell am I getting myself into?