ARCHIVE: October, 2006

----- 10.19.2006 --------
Yes, I've hit the wall again. That mental one? Hell no... I'm truckin' on all cylinders. I'm referring to the rock climbing wall! After a 2 year hiatus, I finally found myself climbing again last night. And it felt great! Sure the runs I used to find easy humiliated me, but that's all good. I kept going until I was exhausted. I went with a friend from work who hadn't been in a couple years. We're hoping to make it out atleast once every two weeks. With a kick or two in the ass to get out, I think I can finally start climbing again which means increased strength and skill, but more importantly, I can go back and kick that wall's ass that kicked mine last night! And they were only 5.7's!!! I have a long way to go to get where I was, but it's a journey that I'm willing to take.

This weekend Jen & I are off to Montreal. Tomorrow morning actually... and I have the day off work too :) And I need it... this week was LONG after last weekend's work. It's amazing how tired you get without a day or two in between, most commonly referred to as a "weekend" :) Anyway, this one should be a good one. Hope you're all doing great! Later!

----- 10.16.2006 --------
Can it already be the middle of October? Wow... time flies! So, what have I been up to lately? Friday I went down to Waterloo for co-op interviews. We had some really strong candidates this time around and I'm looking forward to the Winter term to have them start. "Them"? Yes... this time we're getting 4! We have a very specific project at work and we need some man-power. Or woman-power... if one would have even applied for the position! I know IT is stero-typed as being a guy's industry and as much as I'd like to see that change too, it takes women to actually want to work in this field. Yes, there are a lot of women out there in IT, but far fewer then guys! For this last post, we have 46 applicants... NONE of them were female! Unbelievable! But that's Waterloo's computer science department for you... when I was there (10 years ago), the guys outnumbered the girls by a disgusting ratio. Glad I'm not there anymore.... ;)

After getting back into town on Friday.... after a LONG drive home through traffic (almost 3 hours!), it was off to work I went. We did a major upgrade this weekend and upgraded our VMWare virtual infrastructure from ESX v2.5.2 to v3.0.1. There were a lot of challenges along the way, but that's where the pay off is. By the end of the weekend, it was a successful project. But at a cost... my energy! I put in about 30 hrs over the weekend and today I was feeling it while at work! Tomorrow I'm not in the office, but it's not a day off. I'm going to Microsoft's "Tech I/O" conference. Should be pretty good... but we'll see. If there's anything that I CAN count on from it, it will be a good lunch :)

Wednesday I'm going climbing! I haven't been in over a year and I'm really looking forward to it! I'm quite a bit heavier then the last time, but also stronger, so we'll see what happens on the wall. And then later in the week, Jen & I are off to Montreal. Friay is our 2 year anniversary so we're both taking the day off and getting out of town. Should be fun! Anyway.. that's all for now... hope you're all doing well. Cheers!

----- 10.10.2006 --------
I can't believe it's almost been a month since my last post! Wow, I've been busy! Busy doing what you ask? This past weekend was Thanksgiving (Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone!) so Jen & I went down to Windsor to see my folks. It was a great relaxing (mostly) weekend around the house. There was a bit of work, but it was mostly fun work, like winterizing their trailer and repotting some plants. We went out to my Aunt Roz & Uncle Ray's place for an amazing dinner on Sunday. While we were there, my twin cousins, Allison & Lauren presented my parents with a beautiful picture they did of their dogs (pictured here). Because this is just a small picture, it's tough to see the amazing detail. And to imagine this was done in Coloured Pencil?!?! WOW! They've done tons of great work. In fact, they have a site up and running now. Be sure to check it out at www.lauralart.com. Their work is done together and their "pen name" is Laural. Can you believe the pictures are all done in pencil (with a few exceptions)!!! Wow!

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