R and R

Now that the Christmas celebrations are over (for the time being) it is time to get caught up on some R and R.

Last night we went to Gwen's boss' house for dinner (Pork Tenderloin, delish) and for some games.  We played a game called "Cards Against Humanity" which is pretty much the same as Apples to Apples but the cards aren't as, how should I say it, "PG-13".  It made for a pretty funny evening.

Today we don't really have much planned.  Gwen isn't feeling well (might have the flu but isn't sure yet, has a stuffed nose and sore throat - I think it is the start of the flu, she isn't sure).  We might go to the store to checkout some new hockey skates and pants c/o Mom and Dad's Sportchek gift card and Brian and Janet's super early birthday present (cash for skates).  Other than this, not much else planned - might go to M&P's to help them setup their computer and get files transfered over, but again not sure what they are up to today or if G is up to it).

Tomorrow we are hopefully going for brunch at the Fort Garry and then to the Manitoba Museum and a couples massage - this is why I would prefer for Gwen to get some rest so that she is hopefully better tomorrow ;)  If she isn't, oh well, we can have another lazy day at home getting a refill of R 'n R.

Home for the holidays

Boy it sure feels like Christmas here, there is snow and it is cold unlike Montreal where it was still raining and above 0 most days. Yesterday we finished up our Christmas shopping and this morning we finished wrapping all the gifts. Now, just have to wait for the days where we can give them out!

Today we have a game of outdoor hockey at one of the rinks near our house, probably will have 6-7 players which should be good.  Then tonight is hockey with my team here in Winnipeg and then that is it.

Tomorrow will be a busy day with visiting Debbie (high school friend) and Karl and their daughter Paige. Then we have Christmas Eve mass in Stonewall and supper at the Crockatt's house just outside Argyle.

Then, Coolidge Christmas on the 25th,  Nedohin Christmas on the 26 and 27th and then some much deserved rest. The next event will be New Year's Eve where we have a social for one of Gwen's family friends in St Norbert.

Ah, the holidays, always so busy but that is ok.

Joyeux Noel! (Merry Christmas!)

One more sleep!

I feel like I'm 10 years old again and it's the day before Christmas - that is how excited I am to come home!  YAY!  And, it looks like I will be home for 2 weeks, returning on Monday 07 Jan 13 in the morning most likely.

Pretty excited.

And, I will bring my hockey stuff with me and play a few games with the team back in Winnipeg (this way I don't get rusty).

Don't really have much else to blog about other than this.  I feel like I should quickly drink my tea and go to bed so that tomorrow comes sooner ;)

Now I just have to make sure that I have all my gifts packed so that they will make their way home as well...

Winter has arrived

Busy day - Sunday December 16, 2012

Today was a busy and very productive day.  By 3:30 I had (in relative order of starting the tasks):

1. Listened to "Today's Upbeat Country Hits" playlist on Songza
2. Done all my laundry, all four loads
3. Started packing my bags (100 hrs until departure but who's counting...)
4. Ate lunch
5. Checked Facebook
6. Read more of the Bond Magazine that I have on loan from Eric via Gwen
7. Swiffered the floors
8. Texted dad and Gwen
9. Checked Facebook
10. Listened to "The Dungeon Family" playlist on Songza
11. Cleaned the bathroom
12. Washed the bathroom and kitchen floors
13. Checked Facebook
14. Entered time cards for work
15. Listened to "Lauren Conrad's Holiday Soiree" playlist on Songza
16. Completed my expense report for work
17. Completed my expense report for home (lol - otherwise known as entered all my bills into our spreadsheet of expenses)

Ok, so checking Facebook, texting and listening to music don't contribute to a productive day, but it makes for a more impressive list of things accomplished.

Now, time to relax and make some chili for supper.

Feeling tall

That's how this doorway makes me feel...

Saturday evening

I was told I better blog tonight...

Today was somewhat routine, had an inspection at 10am and it actually started on time, that's a rarity. After the inspection I went to the gym and then lunch at East Side Mario's. I then proceeded to finish my Christmas shopping.

Funny story from yesterday's Christmas party. Olivier, Hicham and I are sitting around and Olivier says "man, it's too bad the contractors didn't leave their radio". I said "do we have a cup or something, I have my iPhone".

(Note: if you want to improve the sound of your iPhone speaker simply place it in a bowl or cup to create and instant amplifier)

So Olivier grabs a paper cup and I put my iPhone in it with one of my music apps (Songza) playing. Not bad we thought. The. Olivier spots a garbage cart - "lets try this he says". So I put my phone in and doesn't really sound that great. But, we are both engineers and won't give up until we get this optimized. So I figured why not try the two together - cup and garbage cart. BINGO! Worked like a charm and sounded pretty impressive for what we were using.

That's thinking outside of the box ;)

Party!

So as people back in Winnipeg are preparing for our annual Christmas party I suggested that we get together here in Montreal and have our own party.

Here are some pictures:

Back in the Greater Montreal Area

Welcome to winter!  When I left, there was some snow and IT IS STILL HERE!  I guess that means winter is here to stay, finally.  You guys back home are probably laughing right now - I've been gone for almost 3 months and already and turning soft... lol.  Actually, I'm not but I do find it very strange to get snow in the middle of December.  It's funny, after hockey we will usually stick around in the parking lot and have a beer and almost all the guys put on their "chapeaus" (aka - toques) and mitts.  For me, just mitts - 2 degrees isn't cold enough for a toque unless I'm outside for 5 hrs.

The flight home was good.  Left Tucson at 7:30am and arrived in Montreal at 5:00pm, through Atlanta.  I got quite a bit a work done on the flight today, getting some planning started for my next big project.

Here are some pictures from my trip:

Tuesday 11 Dec 12, 6:45am, 34*F, the moon and Venus
(the only reason I know it's Venus is because they said so on tv)

Dressed for Success

My next big project 

Our CRJ-900 - can't you tell?  lol
Bonus points - what type of plane is taking off?

And here is a picture of what Gwen would look like riding a roller coaster (too funny):

Tucson take 2

Well, I’m currently enroute to Tucson.  Left rainy Montreal at 4:40pm on time and arrived in cool Chicago at 6:40pm.  I had enough time to make my way to the other terminal and grab a quick bite to eat (Chinese food).  I then made my way to Starbucks for a Grande Mint Refresh tea and waited at the gate to board the plane.

As we were boarding, the guy in from of me was asking if there would be room to store his roller bag (smaller than mine) in the overhead bins.  The guy checking tickets said “Oh yeah, lots of room.  There is about 50 open seats”.

Well, he wasn’t lying, see the photo below:

So, needless to say it was a calm and relaxing flight, a row for pretty much every person on this flight.  The flight attendants are fairly happy too – not many people to have to deal with.  Overall, this is probably my best flight to Tucson.  Plus I’m flying on an MD-80 aircraft.  Pretty old airplane but very comfortable and quiet.  I’m right beside the engines and I would claim this airplane is quieter than a CRJ or even a 737 – I guess it helps with the tail-mounted engines so you don’t get a lot of engine noise as you are forward of the jetwash.

Gwen would have enjoyed this flight – I got a full can of tomato juice ;)  Although, it was Motts so not as good as the Heinz that you typically get on AirCan or WJ flights.  Oh well, I’m not picky.

I am in a relatively calm mood.  I was pretty stressed out this morning, dealing with issues on a project from Germany at 6:30am and trying to get everything ready to go so I could leave early and try to make it to work relatively on time as it had snowed the night before.

The radio was claiming that traffic was brutal everywhere, so I was a little nervous.  As I pulled out of the garage, I realized that it was raining quite a bit and it was turning the snow to slush.  The drive to work was relatively routine, in-fact I believe there was no impact on my time to get there.

One guy at work left early and got to work at 6:30am – he claims that if he waited another 10-15 mins he would have been over an hour to get there when it usually takes him 30-40 mins.  Another guy had a 2 hr commute – thanks to some early morning traffic accidents.

Well, I got about 2 more hours to go on my flight.  I’ll keep reading my magazine and maybe catch a nap while I charge my phone.  If this doesn’t work out, then there is always games on my iPhone – maybe a round or two of Tiger Woods golf, or get caught up on Jack Lumber ;)

PS – was going through pictures on my work laptop and came across this beauty:

 @Gwen – remember the goats?

PPS - this morning it was a balmy 34*F in Tucson...

#51

Wow, I can't believe I have posted 51 blog entries.  And, you all are still reading these... that is great!

It is the weekend and that means time to get caught up on things.  First, I started off with catching up on my sleep, sleeping until 10:00.  Usually I am woken up by the sun shining in through my window at 7 or 8 am but today it is overcast and light drizzle so that makes for great sleeping weather.

I've already started my weekly load of laundry and am half way through my first cup of coffee.  I find myself acting like my dad, watching a hunting show on tv and then Power Boat Television... hahaha.  I haven't been watching much tv, mostly because I haven't really had time but also because there isn't much selection.  That's ok, gives me more of a reason to blog.

The plan for this weekend is to go shopping.  I need some groceries and should really get some Christmas gifts.  I haven't decided where I'm going to go - whether I go to the West Island and hit up Fairview Mall and Loblaws and Costco or if I hop on the metro and go downtown to some of the more boutique-like shops.  Or, maybe I will do both - there are two days in the weekend.

Well, lunch is done so I should get ready for the day and get some stuff done.

Winners!

9-2 Mighty Chucks win!

Pretty cool

http://youtu.be/vj8_rke_it4

I inspected this plane ;)

Mercredi

[Wednesday en francais]

Today was substantially cooler than yesterday's record high of 12*C and rain.  I find it very hard to realize that Christmas is only 20 days away (YAY!) when there is no snow.  Work continues to keep my busy and other than seeing the Christmas tree lit up outside of work or the Santa Claus by the stairs to go up to my office, you would think it is any other month other than December.

Because of my procrastination (mostly induced by my busyness and the warm weather making it seem more like October than December) I will need to do some Christmas shopping this weekend.  I'm not too sure where I'm going to go - downtown to some of the more boutique like stores or to the West Island to the mall?  Or maybe I'll check out the closing sale at Zellers by work - I hear the sale prices are 50-80% off.  I seriously doubt that there is much worth buying at Zellers right now as most has probably already been picked up already.  But we will see what I end up doing.  I also should get a haircut, I have a project kickoff meeting to go to next week down in Tucson again so I should probably get this mop trimmed.

Yesterday I went for dinner with one of my colleagues, Doug, who has been in Montreal all week to witness any testing this week.  We went to an Indian restaurant (Buffet Maharaja) which is closer to downtown.  Dinner was good, so good infact that I over-ate and felt like throwing up; I guess my stomach truly has shrunk... one  plate of Indian food was too much, lol.

The dinner company was good.  We talked about work a bit, family's and about things that I should take Gwen or other guests (cough, cough, anyone?) to see in Montreal.  Doug told me one good restaurant called Biddles Jazz and Ribs - he said they have really good ribs and... yep, you guessed it, live Jazz.  So, the next time someone is out here I will try to take you there.

Well, this is pretty much all that I have for today.  Long day at work and I just feel like lying on the couch and drinking my tea to relax.

Just a reminder that my Christmas list is posted ;)  Skates and hockey pants are quite high on the "needed" list.  I am thankful that I can finish each game without blowing a skate - even some of my teammates are saying how "ancient" my skates are... but they still fit me so well ;)

Hope things are going well back home.    I can't wait for Christmas to see you all again.

Bonsoir!

[Good evening!]

Busy week and weekend

Sorry for the delay in my blog writing.  I had a busy week and relatively busy weekend.

Let's go in order:

Tuesday:

Work was routine - nothing jumping out at me as interesting.  After work I had to do some laundry (sheets) so that Gwen had clean sheets to sleep on.  I tried but was unsuccessful to get my photos to work better from the Grey Cup.  I realized my problem, I forgot to format my SD card - the card had my apartment video recorded on it from my other camera so using a different camera apparently caused some card errors.  Oh well, a few pictures worked out but not videos seem to work very well.  A little disappointed but photos can only do so much justice to actually being there.  It was a great experience and I have some photos to prove that I was actually there.

Had hockey Tuesday night - we lost another close one in the last minute.

Wednesday:

Had half a day of work - the other half was spent driving to Ottawa (2.25 hrs each way) and giving a guest lecture at Carleton University again.  Gwen flew into Ottawa and I met up with her to pick up her bags.  I then drove her downtown so she could check out the currency museum and then I made my way toward Little Italy where I was meeting James at 4:30 for dinner before the lecture at 6:00.

Before I made it to the restaurant Gwen already texted me saying she was done at the currency museum and was waiting for our friend Katie (the MC at our wedding) to finish work for the day so that they could hang out and grab dinner.

The lecture went well, again.  There were some very good questions from the students and there were a few nodders in the crowd, but that is somewhat expected for a 4th year engineering evening course - I've been there, didn't nod off as much as these guys though...

After the lecture, I gave one of the students, Paul, a ride down town - Paul worked with us for an internship for 16 months ending back in September.  It was good to see him and catch up.  Afterwards, I went to Katie's apartment to pick up Gwen.  I had a cup of mulberry apple (maybe?) tea and a quick visit with Katie.  She seems to be enjoying her newfound career - law; she is a clerk for one of the Judge's at the Supreme Court (Gwen correct me if I'm wrong).

The drive home was relatively uneventful.  Home at 12:30 and in bed by 1:00.

Thursday:

Up at 6:00 to make it to work for an inspection at 8 am.  This was inspection 1 of 3 for the day.  After the third inspection, I packed up and went home to be with Gwen and finish one final project quote for the day.

We went for dinner to a restaurant called Mirada and then went to see James Bond "Skyfall" (FINALLY - I've been waiting for weeks to go and see it...).  Dinner was good and movie was great.  We were 2 of 8 people in the theatre... I guess this is a benefit to waiting to go see the movie after it has been out in theatres for a few weeks.

We went to the early show (6:40) and were home by 10 which was good - I was pretty exhausted from the week so far.

Friday:

Work was work - Friday's are when everything seems to unravel.  Luckily my inspection at 2:00 was cancelled so I packed up and got the h3ll out of Dodge.  I got home at 3:30 or so and we packed up our stuff and head out of the big city of Montreal for the much smaller and quaint city of Quebec City.

We started our drive with a 1 hr battle through traffic on the 40 east to get off the Island of Montreal.  Once off the island, traffic was relatively calm and smooth flowing.

Dinner was in Trois Rivieres which is basically the half way point to Quebec City.  I wasn't sure how much English the waiter would know but he was pretty good.  In fact, I was quite impressed with the amount of English that everyone spoke.  I was warned that once you get off the Island and east of Montreal, it is French only, but this wasn't the case.  Maybe it was because we were in the touristy part of QC...

After dinner, we stopped at Tim's and got a coffee and tea to go.  The lady at Tim's spoke very good English and told us that she had to go all the way to Alberta to learn English because they didn't offer it in school.  I would have thought Ontario or even Manitoba would be a closer option, but whatever floats your boat I guess.

An hour later and we were in Quebec City.  We checked into our Hotel which was in Old Quebec and a short walk to pretty much anywhere of interest.  We dropped off our bags and grabbed our cameras to head out and see the sites of Old Quebec at night.  Here are a few pictures:

Can't seem to find the name of this building, but it is here

Gwen With Jacques Cartier

Chateau Frontenac

Basse Ville (Lower Town)

St. Lawerence River

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel where Gwen watched curling and I fell asleep.

Saturday:

Woke up at 9:30, went for buffet breakfast at the hotel.  Returned to the room.  Gwen watched curling, I napped (yes, nap in the morning - getting caught up on my sleep).  At about noon, we were ready to face the cold Quebec City weather.  Cameras in tow, we exited the hotel to the brisk -14*C weather.  We wandered up and down the many streets entering small shops to see what they had to offer.

Gwen's favourite electric bus

A small church in Old Quebec

We eventually made our way to the Citadel - the largest fortified area in North America which over looks the Plains of Abraham where General Wolfe and Montcalme both died during the battle on the Plains of Abraham between the British and French in 1759.

La Citadelle

I could write lots on the 1 hour tour that we took through the Citadel which is an active military base.  However, for those of you with a short attention span, here is the Coles Notes version:

• The Citadel is home to the Royal 22nd Regiment
• The Second Governor General's house is situated here
• Every day at noon they fire the Howitzer (using a blank) to signify remembrance for those lost in action
• The shape of the Citadel is such that you can fire anywhere inside the walls to defend against intruders instead of having long shots from opposites sides of a square
• The British built the Citadel in the 1800's to defend against the American's
• A large cannon at the highest (natural) point in Quebec City could fire a 600 lbs bullet 5 kms; they used to use this cannon to break the ice on the St. Lawerence to keep ship lanes open
• Quebec is Algonquin for "where the river narrows" - upstream the St. Lawerence is much wider and  Quebec City is where the river narrows to the point of only a few hundred metres across

Here are some photos from the tour:

Outside the Citadel, Gwen with a Cannon

A big gun - 600 lbs shell required 10 men to load

Overlooking the Citdel

Overlooking the Plains of Abraham

Chateau Frontenac and Old Quebec from the Citdel

Can still feel our face enough to smile

After the tour we went to Pub L'Orsay mostly to warm up but curling was on, I think Gwen had alternate motives ;)  After two pints, one cup of tea and the Women's Semi Final, we headed back out to the streets.  We wandered around what appeared to be a farmers market, buying a Christmas gift.  We then proceeded into a few more stores and then back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Back into the streets, we went to Saint Alexandre Pub - an English pub.  I had a pulled pork sandwich, Gwen had gluten free sausages.  Afterwards, back to a few more stores (one of which was a 4 storey music store) and then to the hotel for... yep, you guessed it - more curling.

Sunday:

Slept in again and then breakfast.  Afterwards, we packed up and left Quebec City at noon.  Our plan today was to go to Carrefour Laval - a massive shopping centre which I'm pretty certain I already blogged about.  More Christmas gifts bought and then we headed to Le Biftheque for dinner.

The first time Gwen and I came to Montreal in 2007, we stayed at the Four Points Sheraton right across from Le Biftheque.  Since then, Le Biftheque looked like it was on its way out - not being maintained and then it looked to be closed for good.

This was not the case.  They shut the restaurant down for renovations for the better part of a year.  The restaurant opened back up about two weeks ago and boy did I miss it.  Awesome steak!  Gwen and prime rib and was quite happy with her meal as well.

After dinner and coffee/tea, we killed some more time (30 mins) just taking the long way to the airport, me showing Gwen the location of some other customers that I deal with.  Then... dropped Gwen off at the airport for her return flight home to Winnipeg, without me.

So, as you can see, I was a little busy these last few days to blog.  It was lots of fun to have my best friend out here with me for a few days to take in some new sites (and some old ones too ;) ).  

Now to get ready for the next three weeks of work so that I can come home for Christmas!