Monday, October 03, 2005

Top 10!

I made the top 10 for this week!

Register and vote for me - gimmie 5 stars even if you think I stink. You will not get spam from this website, I promise.

http://cornergas.com/comicgenius/?view=routine&routine=94523&index=3

I'm also entered for Week 2 (of 8) of the contest. Same deal. Register. Vote for me. 5 stars.

http://cornergas.com/comicgenius/?view=routine&routine=95115&index=0

Thanks!

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Yet ANOTHER Shameless Plug

OK, I thought this would be fun to do, then I listened to it afterwards and realized I'm not that funny. Oh well, I've got 8 weeks to enter so I might get one that's not half bad. Hell, I KNOW this bit is better than most of the other ones already posted.

Vote as high as you can for me, even if you think I suck donkey balls.

Tell your friends, and VOTE OFTEN.

http://www.cornergas.com/comicgenius/?view=routine&routine=94523

Thanks,

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Labour Day Labours

So my wife and I took on a whole whack of home improvement projects for our Labour Day weekend. I'm still without work, so with gas prices being so high we decided to stay home instead of driving the minivan 6 hours to the cottage and 6 hours back - two tanks of gas, $200!!!! What the hell? Anyway, here's what we accomplished:

The Mirror

We hung this gift from JOdi's parents above the fireplace in place of a small weddnig picture we had there. I think it looks pretty good.
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The Chairs

Avery has a tendancy to spill food - everywhere. Our kitchen chairs were looking quite disgusting and no amount of cleaning was helping. So, we bought some nice fabric and recovered the chairs and then put a cover of thick plastic over top to facilitate easier cleaning. Despite the fact that I now own plastic-covered furniture, it looks good and is a breeze to clean!
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The Basement

We cleaned a large portion of the basement and reorganized all of Avery's toys and Jodi's exercise area. We moved her toy house and slide from outside down there too so she would hopefully play with them some more. Still lots of work to do (like drywall!) but it's coming along.
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The Main Floor Bathroom

We decided to paint the small bathrooms. We started with the main floor powder room because it had the fewest nail pops and won't require too much patching up when the builders come back to fix the pops in the drywall next month. We don't like the colour, but we've got a gallon of the stuff so we'll probably find other places to paint that shade too (like the basement possibly).
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Master Bathroom

There is a house being build behind us that is HUGE and they will be able to see right into our bathroom, so we bought some of that cheap spray on frosting stuff to block out the window. It looks like crap, but until we can get a proper window in there it will do just fine (the window is open, so the left side is the frosted one and the right is looking right outside).
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Avery's Bathroom

This is the one I like the best. It's a nice bright yellow with all the flashy daisies on the accessories and everything. It worked out really well and Avery loves it, so that's a relief.
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In other news I have a 2nd interview with a company in Quebec tomorrow, so I have to prepare for some of the more technical questions they might ask me. If anyone has any advice on how to handle tech questions on Java testing, DCOM testing or IIS configuration issues I'd appreciate the help. I've been a manager for so long it's been a while since I've done anything useful in the technical arena. I'll keep y'all posted.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Dog Days of Summer

Well, if you haven't heard already, then you can read it now. Only this time it will have a less bitter feel to it...

I got laid off.

On Tuesday, July 19th, 2005 (hereinafter known as "Black Tuesday") I was called into the board room where there was a friend of mine (who also happens to be an HR Manager) sitting at a table and my boss on the phone from California. They told me I was being let go and they gave me a envelope and a smile and sent me on my way.

Now I won't get into how much this ticked me off, but suffice it to say that after having just been moved to Ottawa from Waterloo less than a year ago that I was a bit shocked. What was I going to do? I have no contacts here yet, I have a massive mortgage that needs paying, and I only had 10 weeks severance to work with. I needed to start looking for a new job pronto.

That is why I've been silent for so long on this blog. First I was just busy with everything and then the shit hit the fan at work, and then I took a week off to just be depressed, then I spent more than two weeks just applying to job after job after job. Then I took a week to just do stuff around the house and so-forth. Now, I'm on "vacation" up at my parents cottage. It could be worse I suppose.

I had an interview last week and didn't get the job. I have another interview tomorrow too with the Weather Network as an "Interactive Web Services Development Manager" so we'll see how that works out. Spirits are high with interest in my resume, so hopefully I can turn that into some sort of work soon.

On the upside to all of this, I have managed to plot out the movie I'm writing pretty much in its entirety. I've got two scenes fully written and the rest of them point-formed out in my notebook. In doing all of this I've also managed to get an idea for a computer program that will help people like me plot out their movie and put it in the right format and everything. I'll likely get one of my friends to write some code for me and see if I can put it to good use for my next movie :-)

What else... oh yeah, Jodi was reading Avery one of those Dora the Explorer books that helps young kids learn to read. It uses pictures of common objects in with the text of the book so that when you come to certain words, the picture is there too and the kid can point to the picture and learn to identify letters. For instance, when the story comes to a point with a tree in it, there will be a picture of a tree with "tree" written under it so the kid can learn to identify the letters and sounds associated with the picture.

So anyway, Jodi is reading this book with Avery and it's about baseball or something like that. They come to a point in the book where Dora slides into home base and there's a picture of home plate. So Jodi says, "... and then Dora slides into home...." and she points to the picture of home base and Avery says, "Depot!". Yes, she is my daughter. Home base doesn't even register to her (even after an explanation), she goes straight to Home Depot. Awesome!

That's about it. It's raining like a mufo out there right now so maybe I can get a bit of writing in.

I'll keep you all posted on the job hunt.

Monday, July 04, 2005

I'm Baaaaaack

Well to recap the vacation would take a long time, so here is the basic idea:
  • Leave Ottawa on Wednesday, June 22 at 1:00pm - a full 2 hours later than expected.
  • After drugging Avery with some Children's Gravol we stop 6.5 hours later for dinner in Montpelier Vermont. Food was good but they refuse to pronounce the name of their town properly.
  • Arrive in East Windsor CT at 9:30pm. Avery is showing no signs of sleeping any time soon and does not disappoint. She goes to bed with Jodi at midnight as I'm out drinking after a hard day's drive.
  • I golf on Thursday with the wedding party and a few others. Jodi takes Avery to a small petting zoo in Springfield MA. Avery had fun. I shot a 53 on the front then stopped keeping score after 13 holes.
  • That night was a get together with the wedding party and the out-of-towners. Great food at the something something we were at in Hartford.
  • Friday I took Avery back to Springfield for a swim and some fun at the playground. Pool was closed (apparently until July 1st) but splash park was open. Jodi went shopping. American Express just sent me flowers.
  • Friday evening was the wedding. Avery was perfectly behaved at the ceremony and through dinner then she hit the dance floor. She was the hit of the party leading every dance and in the middle of everything.
  • I smuggled Cuban cigars across the border and had a smoke with 15 or so other wedding guests. Cohiba's were a big hit with the Americans. Avery was up until midnight again before Jodi dragged us both home (kicking and screaming).
  • Saturday was a great day for a hangover, and a drive from Hartford to Rochester NY.
  • We slide into Letchworth State Park at around 6:00pm and get the last camp site (after getting lost at least twice).
  • Avery spends her first night in a tent. She loves it but mommy and daddy sleep like shit.
  • Sunday was a quick 5 hour drive to Wasaga Beach Ontario (2 hours North of Toronto) to stay at my parents cottage (on the water!)
  • Chilled there until Tuesday after lunch then went to visit a friend of Jodi's that afternoon an hour away. It was a good visit.
  • Chilled at the beach until Thursday afternoon where we drove another 3 hours to Woodstock Ontario to visit Jodi's parents.
  • Friday Jodi took Avery on a 3 hour drive to Southampton Ontario to see relatives and I drove 1 hour to Waterloo Ontario for a Canada Day golf tournament
  • Jodi leaves Southampton early because the weather sucks ass.
  • I lock my keys and golf clubs in the trunk of Jodi's dad's convertible. He has to drive me out a spare set of keys so I can get my stuff and make my tee time.
  • I shoot a 97 (which is good for me) and make it back to Woodstock on time for fireworks with Jodi, Avery and Jodi's brother. Avery keeps asking when the firemen are coming to light the sky.
  • We leave Woodstock at 10:00am on Saturday morning and get back to Ottawa at around 4:30pm. Just enough time to mow the lawn and make dinner.
  • Sunday - lots of sleep. Actually, no. We went biking with Avery downtown Ottawa and then for a swim in the river.

So there you have it. We had fun, but we need a vacation from our vacation. We're at the beach for a week in August by ourselves so hopefully we can just drive the 5 hours then sit on our asses for 7 days.