Month: June 2006

Today was EBI's Service Day, where the various groups talk about what they do. I had to give a 5 minute lightning presentation on PRIDE. Didn't go too badly. Was nervous as heck, but I always am when I speak to a large crowd, so that's no biggie. I caught myself before I said a bad word in front of my bosses, so yay for self-filtering blathering. (The exact sentence was going to say “There are no entry points to browse the data, so if you don't know what you're looking for to use the query interface, you're screwed…pause…in trouble.

Amusing quote of the day was “I work in IT, I don't know what a tie is!”, which made me giggle.

It's been muggy as hell hereabouts for the last 2 days. A warm morass of humid air decided to hunker down and make us all miserable all of a sudden. For once, I wish it would rain. A lot. Maybe that would clear the air. It probably couldn't be worse than it is now. I have come to the conclusion that when we finally buy a house, the 3 criteria that it must have are a large kitchen, screens on the windows and fucking AC. The last two should not be a problem in a civilized country such as Canada, but in the wilderness that is Great Britain, it's near impossible to find. The whole concept is just… alien to them. Whatever. Barbarians, the lot of them, I say.

On brighter news, I've almost finished with the layout of ht wedding invitations, so I'll be able to get them printed probably tomorrow (and before the end of the week, for certain). I'm really happy about the results.

On more brighter news, we'll be getting the pussycat on July 22nd. The breeder is going to give him the last set of shots on the 17th, so he's ours any time after that.

My coffee intake has been slashed dramatically! I'm down to one cup of coffee a day and drink green tea for the rest of the day at work. No caffeine and plenty of anti-oxidants.

The impressive thing is that I've not killed anybody yet!

My life is currently mostly long periods of humdrum routine, broken up with random, high-intensity burn-your-stomach-lining stress. Then again, I guess I'm describing the life of most everyone I know, really.

Don't have much to say. Work is ok. I manage to get some interesting and useful code written and deployed. My bosses seem happy and my coworkers appreciate what I do, so that's always good. I'll be jet-setting for a weekend in Poland soon, though I'd prefer going with somebody because travelling alone sucks. One thing I'm noticing is that I'm falling back into an old and evil pattern of getting sucked into work and not taking breaks to socialize. I eat at my desk while trying to get work done. Not good. I used to go out for walks with Phil, but since my allergies have kicked back in and given the increase in activity of the disturbingly large insect population, I'm really not tempted to go out in the fields just right now.

The weekend should be relaxing. Probably going into town. I'd like to get some ring molds and pastry cutters. Maybe cut the grass. Maybe have a BBQ.

Mood is a bit up and down at the moment. I need to hit the gym more (which also ties in with being one with my desk these days). I'm worried about my dad's back, money, wedding preparations, and other sundry things.

I find myself missing the boys back home, while at the same time being rather cross with them for their lack of contact. I email them once in a while, but it's always me. Their shout-outs are few and far between. Make that, I haven't really heard from anybody except Michel in far too long. Meh.

Boy, I'm just a little ball of sunshine at the moment, ain't I.

Good thought: spend an hour on the phone with Michel last night, talking about wedding stuff and his newly-bought condo stuff.

Bad thought: I'm losing contact with a lot of people back in Canada. I expected the out-of-sight, out-of-mind deal, but it's still hitting harder than I expected, at the most random times.

Good thought: we're going to have a BBQ this weekend.

Bad thought: the garden still needs a cubic assload of work.

Bad thought: my shoulder is still giving me grief

Good thought: but it's getting better.

All in all, I still feel a bit meh.

The next month will be hell. I have meetings coming out of the wazoo and people trying to shanghai me for even more meetings which, luckily or unluckily, clash with the ones I already have. If I'm lucky, they'll just forget about me. If I'm unlucky, they'll reschedule them and add more entries in my already groaning calendar.

In other news, I slept like crap last night. I do believe that stress is starting to be a factor in my life again. My shoulder, the classic indicator in my life, kept me up for part of last night and apparently, my blood pressure is again on the dark side of elevated (slightly, so I'm not overly concerned, but it's still higher than usual).

I just need to get through the next few months (until the next crisis comes along that is – am I being too cynical?)