They said it couldn't be done... that it shouldn't BE done, but I did it anyway: I've compressed the entire month of December into this ONE blog entry, to catch all of you folks up. I've only done the highlights, cut out all the boring stuff, and thrown in some tidbits for spice. Enjoy!
Dec 2nd to 9th - I find a place to call home
Sunday, I worked. Not much happening there - same kind of people, different city, more rain.
Monday, I looked at an apartment over off Quadra St - a little dated, but it's a 2 bedroom with lots of space, laundry on the main floor and it's five minutes from the Mayfair Mall shopping area - tons of restaurants, a Staples, and more. $900.00 a month plus cable, so it's within my budget. Needs some updating though; it was built in the 70's and hasn't been updated since. *sigh* After seeing my parent's place for the first time today, there's no comparison. Also, we're getting a LOT of rain, but northern parts of the Island are getting flooded - not us! Yay!
Tuesday, I FOUND my apartment over on May Street! I met the landlord there in the morning after a 30 minute walk from the condo we're in now; he's friendly and gives off an air of trustworthiness( so I'll use caution instead of paranoia like I usually do with folks ). As soon as I saw the place, I knew it was perfect - one bedroom, built in the fifties( but updated ), with hardwood floors and windows on three sides of the third floor. The capper is a new corner gas( pun unintended )fireplace, which heats the space. It's bright, fairly spacious and most importantly, affordable for me. The location is near( but not next to )the Fairfield shopping plaza, which has a pub, a grocery store, a TD bank, a dentist, a hardware store and more. Apparently it's the densest plaza in all of Victoria and I can walk there easily. Also, there's the Cook St. Village, which is another nice area to walk to with more pubs, stores and even a Starbuck's. To top it all off, I'm near 2 major bus routes( one in front of the building, but it's not noisy from what I heard while a few buses went by ). It's ideal. I had lunch with my parent's at Sam's Deli downtown( GREAT sandwiches, with beer! )and then met the landlord again an hour later to sign the lease and fork over cheques. Joy!
Wednesday, I looked at some more furniture at Dodd's, and managed to pick up a night table that is the twin to the one I left behind in St. Catharines... for $10.00 ! I love Kijiji! Needs a little love, but I'm thrilled - I'd had that thing for nearly thirty years, and I hated to leave it behind. Also I found a new vacuum for 1/2 off at Can.Tire( sweet! )and played around with my parent's new Pixma iP4500 photo printer in the evening - makes my old Epson Stylus 500 look like an ink blotter... and it's less than 1/4 the price of what I paid for the Epson back in the mid 90's. Tech progression...
Thursday, I worked in the evening. Today was Lucas' birthday, but I haven't been able to figure out what to get him yet( been trying for weeks now ). Something able to be mailed, but not cheap... we'll see.
Friday, I worked a morning shift. I got another car rental for the weekend, mainly for my parents to use, zipping around the area to look at furniture and explore. It's so nice to see them excited about retiring in this city.
Saturday I opened the store, had a busy but far less stressful day that yesterday, and had dinner at the ABC restaurant with my parents. Turkey dinners, no less - it smelled too good at the next table over NOT to order. Another nice thing is that my parents can order from the Seniors menu now, so their portions( and prices )are smaller... both things that they enjoy. I talked to my friends in Niagara that evening via Skype, which we all enjoyed. Miss ya folks!
Sunday I had off, as a day of rest. I fiddled around on the Xbox360, trying to diagnose a nasty crackle that it's had since Day 1; no luck. I'm hoping it's not the TV, as I'd hate to have to return the thing. Good that the crackle only shows up in certain parts of certain games, I guess...
Dec 10th to 16th - More working, got some furniture, windy out!!!
Monday I took my parents out to Smitty's for a lovely breakfast to get the day going. We went a few places, and I purchased a few necessities at Home Depot for the new apartment( like a gas detector ). I went to work for the evening shift, and it wasn't too busy, which was nice. Sunny!
Tuesday I was at 'my' new apartment for 11am to take some measurements, then we went to the Brick Clearance Center, where I found a nice 3-piece sofa set in a sage colour... that was on sale cheap, cheap cheap! So I bought it, with only a little wallet-twinge. I got off work quite early, which meant I was able to get back to the Brick Clearance to pay for the rest of the sofa set and so not lose it to some other devious shopper with a good eye for a bargain - whew! I also went to London Drugs right after to check out another deal on an HD-DVD player from Toshiba, the A30, which was on sale AND came with a total of 7 free HD DVD's; too good a bargain to pass up. Since I now had a 1080p-capable TV, I needed a DVD player that would take advantage of the high resolution... and the A30 upconverts regular DVD's to play at HDTV 1080p resolution too. Amazing, and not that expensive really. I always love a good deal, especially if I can actually afford it at the time.
Wednesday and Thursday I worked the early/opening shift, both days were OK. I had an early supper at the Bay Centre Cafe` with my parents, then took a nice stroll along the wharf area of town, which was lovely with the evening lights on. No snow, but it feels very Christmas-y.
Friday saw my parents over at their new condo, measuring and admiring the view. I worked.
Saturday I had off, so after some morning television I went out to do some shopping comparisons. The wind was picking up, so I didn't stay out too long, though I did manage to miss a couple of buses and ended up walking a LOT further than I'd wanted to today. Oh well.
Sunday was VERY windy; there was a lot of damage up-island from fallen trees and the like. We all basically stayed home and revised plans etc for our moves in a month's time. Relaxed too.
Dec 17th to 24th - Emptying out the storage unit exhausts me...
Monday was, as expected, freakishly busy for me. I was at Budget Truck & Van Rentals for 8am waaay down Douglas St. at Queens to get a 13' van; we're moving the contents of the storage unit today over to their new place. So my dad & I spent the day loading & unloading the van from the 3rd floor of City Center Storage using the freight elevator( I did 99% of the moving, he shifted boxes and packed them tight ). We ended up making three trips to get everything, most of the time was spent carting boxes from the storage to the van and from the van to the condo, 4 boxes at a time on the dolly. We hadn't finished moving the boxes out of the lower foyer at their condo at 6:30pm, but I had to go pick up some other furniture and get THAT back to the condo, then return the van by 8pm... which I managed with 5 minutes to spare. I finally finished getting all our stuff into the condo by 10pm, at which point I was totally... wiped... out. My left knee( oddly enough )was a mess, and my winter coat was totally soaked with sweat. Geez....
Tuesday I worked in the early am( groan )and I'm still wiped from yesterday's exertions. I basically got home and napped the evening away to recover.
Wednesday I rented a Ford Focus early at 7:30am then had breakfast with my dad at Smitty's, before I went to work for the morning( It's cold here in the mornings, but that's amplified by the wet weather as it often rains overnight and in the mornings - have to watch that if you're out ). Sadly, my first customer of the day was extraordinarily nasty, threatening me for no reason. I later found out he was emotionally disturbed and off his meds, according too several other people in the lobby - not an excuse, but a reason to understand why he'd go off like he did. On a lighter note, apparently the police had staked out either end of the block around the store, as today was Welfare Day, and they picked up several dozen folks they'd been looking for recently - good to hear, though I can only hope they got Mr. Nasty too. I spent the evening trying to relax and forget about how vicious people can be if they're sick.
Thursday I worked quite early again, with no incidents to speak of. I spent the evening helping my dad move some boxes down to a storage locker at their new condo; my parents have spent the last 2 days sorting and packing boxes to separate my things from theirs and get it all ready for me to move in January to my new place on May St. Thanks guys. :)
Friday dragged until I worked in the evening; my week's caught up to me and I'm beat. Even Saturday was much the same, as I worked the closing shift. At least the morning TV shows were funny.
Sunday was MUCH nicer: we had Christmas Brunch at Samuel's next door, and we had my mother's friend Pat along as well. The food was fantastic, the atmosphere was sublime and we all had a good time, making me forget for a little while how the week had been rather hard on me.
Dec 24 to 31st - A busy week, my sister visits, lots going on ...
Christmas Eve( Monday )was another day off, which I really needed. We picked up my sister Cheri from the airport before noon in our rental, then went to have lunch at Spinnaker's Brew Pub near their new condo. It was rather busy and the service suffered some because of it; I think I'd like to go back on a less busy day and sit in the main restaurant, as we had to go upstairs to the 'pub' area to eat( same menu though ). I got dropped off at the other condo( home for now )while my sister & parents went for a drive along the coast, as I wasn't feeling well. That turned into a full-blown migraine within the hour; I attributed it to the microbrew I'd had at lunch. Some research a few days later( see item 10 here ) turned up the interesting fact that beer brewed in copper kettles( like a lot of microbreweries have )can be a migraine trigger for many folks, myself included. I spent most of the evening curled up in a corner in agony, despite medication, but I did manage to crawl out later on to watch some of 'Heidi' with my family before my sister was dropped off to sleep in luxury at my parent's new place. Merry Christmas to all, and pass the Tylenol...
Christmas Day was a quiet one; we had no presents to speak of, as we're all carefully watching our budget and have spent years worth of Christmas-cash in this move, so nobody minded. We went to the Sticky Wicket Pub for lunch... as we found out we'd arrived far too early for them to be serving their Christmas Turkey special; oh well. The waitress Jessica was VERY cute. We all piled into the rental for a LONG drive north up-island to Sooke, about an hour, which apparently we just HAD to do today. Good thing I love & get along with my family, and the view was rather pleasant with the varied scenery. I took some great photos( future link here ), then we went back to my parent's condo so I could nap for a while, as I'm still not feeling great after yesterday's migraine. We went back to the Sticky Wicket for dinner at 5pm, and though it took an hour for our dinner to arrive, it was worth it: turkey with all the trimmings, in large quantities. Fabulous! We all spent the evening watching the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which oddly enough felt very appropriate for Christmas( don't ask me why ). Again, it's amazing to have ALL my family there for Christmas, I'm feeling very blessed / lucky to have us all here and safe in Victoria.
Wednesday I was at Future Shop in Victoria for 5:30am... and there were several hundred people already there ahead of me in line for Boxing Day! Doors opened at 6am, and we all went inside in quite the orderly fashion; I was surprised. Though it was crowded, I did managed to snag several DVD deals, as well as a nice 'net router for 1/2 off. We met my mom & sister at Smitty's for 7am breakfast, then I took a nap for a few hours before working at 11am.
Thursday I had a morning coffee( well, tea for me )with my sister at the nearby Starbucks. We talked about quite a few things, and I was so pleased to just spend time talking with her. I'm thrilled that she's getting along well in life, and has remained such a great person. Love ya sis! It made working for the rest of the evening much nicer.
Friday I had a last breakfast with my sister( and parents )at Brannigan's, then got dropped off at work for the day after saying goodbye to my sister, as she's leaving today... I'll miss her a lot. I'm also happy that she has so many good friends who have helped her get here for two visits so far - it's VERY much appreciated. Just goes to show good folk know the same, and act like it. :)
Saturday was another day off, most of which I spend out again running errands, including a stop at Future Shop to test my Xbox360 on the same TV model as the one I have at home. Unsurprisingly, the SAME audio crackle boomed from the speakers to startle several customers, which leads me to a 99% certainty that it's the Xbox, not the TV, at fault. Now I have to convince Microsoft of the same thing... and get in line on the phone for long, long waits after the busy holiday season. Yay. Had lunch at the Red Robin restaurant near the Mayfair Mall, which was a mixed experience - the service was so-so but the food was good. At least we weren't near the section with the screaming baby... who stayed ALL the time we were there. I hate to say it, but if your child won't stop crying, perhaps you might consider taking them home a touch early?
Sunday I opened the store again. Man, this place LOVES paperwork, as I've already mentioned. Perhaps it's because they don't have a midnighter to balance everything, but even when I WAS working on midnights, the store didn't have so many, many things to checklist, file, sign and doublecheck... it's almost obsessive, and though I'm an organized person, even I find it a bit much. Ironically, I spent the evening at home filing MY paperwork to try and catch up on all the receipts and such that have flooded me since we moved... there's a ton to track, so I'm using MS Excel - urk. At least I'm getting practice for work, and I'm getting better THERE too.
Monday: New Year's Eve, and it was BUSY at work( shocker ). Even though I only worked until the early evening, the last few hours were crazy - human nature dictates that many folk wait until the last minute to get anything done, then complain when places close early( uh, holiday...? )and they can't get their business done. Sheesh. At least the TV repairman from Q-Tel came in the morning to tell me that my TV was fine... though he nearly made me throttle him when he shook my Xbox to 'test' it... not very technical, and potentially damaging! Anyway, enough on that. I was online with them on Skype until 10pm, talking & viewing with my friends for New Year's eve. Everyone was at Pierre & Faith's place for the evening( Rene & Shi couldn't make it, sadly )but I had a great time despite being 4000km away... folks stayed until 1:30am EST to watch the first Austin Powers movie, which I heard more than saw through the tiny grainy picture that I was granted via Skype. A great way to ring in 2008 with my friends, I miss 'em all.
All for now. For those of you who care, all posts have been edited as of Jan 3 2008 to eliminate any references that my cause heart palpitations for NMM. Of course, having an online policy would help matters... and now I know you're watching. :-)
Dec 2nd to 9th - I find a place to call home
Sunday, I worked. Not much happening there - same kind of people, different city, more rain.
Monday, I looked at an apartment over off Quadra St - a little dated, but it's a 2 bedroom with lots of space, laundry on the main floor and it's five minutes from the Mayfair Mall shopping area - tons of restaurants, a Staples, and more. $900.00 a month plus cable, so it's within my budget. Needs some updating though; it was built in the 70's and hasn't been updated since. *sigh* After seeing my parent's place for the first time today, there's no comparison. Also, we're getting a LOT of rain, but northern parts of the Island are getting flooded - not us! Yay!
Tuesday, I FOUND my apartment over on May Street! I met the landlord there in the morning after a 30 minute walk from the condo we're in now; he's friendly and gives off an air of trustworthiness( so I'll use caution instead of paranoia like I usually do with folks ). As soon as I saw the place, I knew it was perfect - one bedroom, built in the fifties( but updated ), with hardwood floors and windows on three sides of the third floor. The capper is a new corner gas( pun unintended )fireplace, which heats the space. It's bright, fairly spacious and most importantly, affordable for me. The location is near( but not next to )the Fairfield shopping plaza, which has a pub, a grocery store, a TD bank, a dentist, a hardware store and more. Apparently it's the densest plaza in all of Victoria and I can walk there easily. Also, there's the Cook St. Village, which is another nice area to walk to with more pubs, stores and even a Starbuck's. To top it all off, I'm near 2 major bus routes( one in front of the building, but it's not noisy from what I heard while a few buses went by ). It's ideal. I had lunch with my parent's at Sam's Deli downtown( GREAT sandwiches, with beer! )and then met the landlord again an hour later to sign the lease and fork over cheques. Joy!
Wednesday, I looked at some more furniture at Dodd's, and managed to pick up a night table that is the twin to the one I left behind in St. Catharines... for $10.00 ! I love Kijiji! Needs a little love, but I'm thrilled - I'd had that thing for nearly thirty years, and I hated to leave it behind. Also I found a new vacuum for 1/2 off at Can.Tire( sweet! )and played around with my parent's new Pixma iP4500 photo printer in the evening - makes my old Epson Stylus 500 look like an ink blotter... and it's less than 1/4 the price of what I paid for the Epson back in the mid 90's. Tech progression...
Thursday, I worked in the evening. Today was Lucas' birthday, but I haven't been able to figure out what to get him yet( been trying for weeks now ). Something able to be mailed, but not cheap... we'll see.
Friday, I worked a morning shift. I got another car rental for the weekend, mainly for my parents to use, zipping around the area to look at furniture and explore. It's so nice to see them excited about retiring in this city.
Saturday I opened the store, had a busy but far less stressful day that yesterday, and had dinner at the ABC restaurant with my parents. Turkey dinners, no less - it smelled too good at the next table over NOT to order. Another nice thing is that my parents can order from the Seniors menu now, so their portions( and prices )are smaller... both things that they enjoy. I talked to my friends in Niagara that evening via Skype, which we all enjoyed. Miss ya folks!
Sunday I had off, as a day of rest. I fiddled around on the Xbox360, trying to diagnose a nasty crackle that it's had since Day 1; no luck. I'm hoping it's not the TV, as I'd hate to have to return the thing. Good that the crackle only shows up in certain parts of certain games, I guess...
Dec 10th to 16th - More working, got some furniture, windy out!!!
Monday I took my parents out to Smitty's for a lovely breakfast to get the day going. We went a few places, and I purchased a few necessities at Home Depot for the new apartment( like a gas detector ). I went to work for the evening shift, and it wasn't too busy, which was nice. Sunny!
Tuesday I was at 'my' new apartment for 11am to take some measurements, then we went to the Brick Clearance Center, where I found a nice 3-piece sofa set in a sage colour... that was on sale cheap, cheap cheap! So I bought it, with only a little wallet-twinge. I got off work quite early, which meant I was able to get back to the Brick Clearance to pay for the rest of the sofa set and so not lose it to some other devious shopper with a good eye for a bargain - whew! I also went to London Drugs right after to check out another deal on an HD-DVD player from Toshiba, the A30, which was on sale AND came with a total of 7 free HD DVD's; too good a bargain to pass up. Since I now had a 1080p-capable TV, I needed a DVD player that would take advantage of the high resolution... and the A30 upconverts regular DVD's to play at HDTV 1080p resolution too. Amazing, and not that expensive really. I always love a good deal, especially if I can actually afford it at the time.
Wednesday and Thursday I worked the early/opening shift, both days were OK. I had an early supper at the Bay Centre Cafe` with my parents, then took a nice stroll along the wharf area of town, which was lovely with the evening lights on. No snow, but it feels very Christmas-y.
Friday saw my parents over at their new condo, measuring and admiring the view. I worked.
Saturday I had off, so after some morning television I went out to do some shopping comparisons. The wind was picking up, so I didn't stay out too long, though I did manage to miss a couple of buses and ended up walking a LOT further than I'd wanted to today. Oh well.
Sunday was VERY windy; there was a lot of damage up-island from fallen trees and the like. We all basically stayed home and revised plans etc for our moves in a month's time. Relaxed too.
Dec 17th to 24th - Emptying out the storage unit exhausts me...
Monday was, as expected, freakishly busy for me. I was at Budget Truck & Van Rentals for 8am waaay down Douglas St. at Queens to get a 13' van; we're moving the contents of the storage unit today over to their new place. So my dad & I spent the day loading & unloading the van from the 3rd floor of City Center Storage using the freight elevator( I did 99% of the moving, he shifted boxes and packed them tight ). We ended up making three trips to get everything, most of the time was spent carting boxes from the storage to the van and from the van to the condo, 4 boxes at a time on the dolly. We hadn't finished moving the boxes out of the lower foyer at their condo at 6:30pm, but I had to go pick up some other furniture and get THAT back to the condo, then return the van by 8pm... which I managed with 5 minutes to spare. I finally finished getting all our stuff into the condo by 10pm, at which point I was totally... wiped... out. My left knee( oddly enough )was a mess, and my winter coat was totally soaked with sweat. Geez....
Tuesday I worked in the early am( groan )and I'm still wiped from yesterday's exertions. I basically got home and napped the evening away to recover.
Wednesday I rented a Ford Focus early at 7:30am then had breakfast with my dad at Smitty's, before I went to work for the morning( It's cold here in the mornings, but that's amplified by the wet weather as it often rains overnight and in the mornings - have to watch that if you're out ). Sadly, my first customer of the day was extraordinarily nasty, threatening me for no reason. I later found out he was emotionally disturbed and off his meds, according too several other people in the lobby - not an excuse, but a reason to understand why he'd go off like he did. On a lighter note, apparently the police had staked out either end of the block around the store, as today was Welfare Day, and they picked up several dozen folks they'd been looking for recently - good to hear, though I can only hope they got Mr. Nasty too. I spent the evening trying to relax and forget about how vicious people can be if they're sick.
Thursday I worked quite early again, with no incidents to speak of. I spent the evening helping my dad move some boxes down to a storage locker at their new condo; my parents have spent the last 2 days sorting and packing boxes to separate my things from theirs and get it all ready for me to move in January to my new place on May St. Thanks guys. :)
Friday dragged until I worked in the evening; my week's caught up to me and I'm beat. Even Saturday was much the same, as I worked the closing shift. At least the morning TV shows were funny.
Sunday was MUCH nicer: we had Christmas Brunch at Samuel's next door, and we had my mother's friend Pat along as well. The food was fantastic, the atmosphere was sublime and we all had a good time, making me forget for a little while how the week had been rather hard on me.
Dec 24 to 31st - A busy week, my sister visits, lots going on ...
Christmas Eve( Monday )was another day off, which I really needed. We picked up my sister Cheri from the airport before noon in our rental, then went to have lunch at Spinnaker's Brew Pub near their new condo. It was rather busy and the service suffered some because of it; I think I'd like to go back on a less busy day and sit in the main restaurant, as we had to go upstairs to the 'pub' area to eat( same menu though ). I got dropped off at the other condo( home for now )while my sister & parents went for a drive along the coast, as I wasn't feeling well. That turned into a full-blown migraine within the hour; I attributed it to the microbrew I'd had at lunch. Some research a few days later( see item 10 here ) turned up the interesting fact that beer brewed in copper kettles( like a lot of microbreweries have )can be a migraine trigger for many folks, myself included. I spent most of the evening curled up in a corner in agony, despite medication, but I did manage to crawl out later on to watch some of 'Heidi' with my family before my sister was dropped off to sleep in luxury at my parent's new place. Merry Christmas to all, and pass the Tylenol...
Christmas Day was a quiet one; we had no presents to speak of, as we're all carefully watching our budget and have spent years worth of Christmas-cash in this move, so nobody minded. We went to the Sticky Wicket Pub for lunch... as we found out we'd arrived far too early for them to be serving their Christmas Turkey special; oh well. The waitress Jessica was VERY cute. We all piled into the rental for a LONG drive north up-island to Sooke, about an hour, which apparently we just HAD to do today. Good thing I love & get along with my family, and the view was rather pleasant with the varied scenery. I took some great photos( future link here ), then we went back to my parent's condo so I could nap for a while, as I'm still not feeling great after yesterday's migraine. We went back to the Sticky Wicket for dinner at 5pm, and though it took an hour for our dinner to arrive, it was worth it: turkey with all the trimmings, in large quantities. Fabulous! We all spent the evening watching the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which oddly enough felt very appropriate for Christmas( don't ask me why ). Again, it's amazing to have ALL my family there for Christmas, I'm feeling very blessed / lucky to have us all here and safe in Victoria.
Wednesday I was at Future Shop in Victoria for 5:30am... and there were several hundred people already there ahead of me in line for Boxing Day! Doors opened at 6am, and we all went inside in quite the orderly fashion; I was surprised. Though it was crowded, I did managed to snag several DVD deals, as well as a nice 'net router for 1/2 off. We met my mom & sister at Smitty's for 7am breakfast, then I took a nap for a few hours before working at 11am.
Thursday I had a morning coffee( well, tea for me )with my sister at the nearby Starbucks. We talked about quite a few things, and I was so pleased to just spend time talking with her. I'm thrilled that she's getting along well in life, and has remained such a great person. Love ya sis! It made working for the rest of the evening much nicer.
Friday I had a last breakfast with my sister( and parents )at Brannigan's, then got dropped off at work for the day after saying goodbye to my sister, as she's leaving today... I'll miss her a lot. I'm also happy that she has so many good friends who have helped her get here for two visits so far - it's VERY much appreciated. Just goes to show good folk know the same, and act like it. :)
Saturday was another day off, most of which I spend out again running errands, including a stop at Future Shop to test my Xbox360 on the same TV model as the one I have at home. Unsurprisingly, the SAME audio crackle boomed from the speakers to startle several customers, which leads me to a 99% certainty that it's the Xbox, not the TV, at fault. Now I have to convince Microsoft of the same thing... and get in line on the phone for long, long waits after the busy holiday season. Yay. Had lunch at the Red Robin restaurant near the Mayfair Mall, which was a mixed experience - the service was so-so but the food was good. At least we weren't near the section with the screaming baby... who stayed ALL the time we were there. I hate to say it, but if your child won't stop crying, perhaps you might consider taking them home a touch early?
Sunday I opened the store again. Man, this place LOVES paperwork, as I've already mentioned. Perhaps it's because they don't have a midnighter to balance everything, but even when I WAS working on midnights, the store didn't have so many, many things to checklist, file, sign and doublecheck... it's almost obsessive, and though I'm an organized person, even I find it a bit much. Ironically, I spent the evening at home filing MY paperwork to try and catch up on all the receipts and such that have flooded me since we moved... there's a ton to track, so I'm using MS Excel - urk. At least I'm getting practice for work, and I'm getting better THERE too.
Monday: New Year's Eve, and it was BUSY at work( shocker ). Even though I only worked until the early evening, the last few hours were crazy - human nature dictates that many folk wait until the last minute to get anything done, then complain when places close early( uh, holiday...? )and they can't get their business done. Sheesh. At least the TV repairman from Q-Tel came in the morning to tell me that my TV was fine... though he nearly made me throttle him when he shook my Xbox to 'test' it... not very technical, and potentially damaging! Anyway, enough on that. I was online with them on Skype until 10pm, talking & viewing with my friends for New Year's eve. Everyone was at Pierre & Faith's place for the evening( Rene & Shi couldn't make it, sadly )but I had a great time despite being 4000km away... folks stayed until 1:30am EST to watch the first Austin Powers movie, which I heard more than saw through the tiny grainy picture that I was granted via Skype. A great way to ring in 2008 with my friends, I miss 'em all.
All for now. For those of you who care, all posts have been edited as of Jan 3 2008 to eliminate any references that my cause heart palpitations for NMM. Of course, having an online policy would help matters... and now I know you're watching. :-)
