More Snow/Ice Days Please

My week in Toronto went pretty well. My brain was pretty tired by the end of it since the training was pretty intense this time. We had to try and wrap our brains around some pretty abstract database concepts. Basically to report well on a database we need to unlearn all the database theory we use when creating an operational database like our Student Information System. Creating these reporting models will definitely be a challenge.

George and I didn't do a whole lot in the evenings aside from eating too much food. I had a great Kung Pao Chicken stir-fry one night that I ate entirely with chop-sticks which is a first for me. Not really having eaten Chinese food while growing up I figured I'd give it a whirl and it wasn't all that bad. We hit some of the bigger malls around Toronto which allowed me to get some Christmas shopping done. I pretty much just have my dad and brother-in-law left to find gifts for. We also went to see the new Bond movie which was pretty good. I didn't expect to have to think during the movie cause I normally associate Bond movies with mindless action. But then I haven't seen a Bond movie in a while so I was please to find out the plot was kind of confusing. I liken the complexity of the plot to the first Mission Impossible. I wanna see it again to try and see if I missed some clues or if they just pulled a fast one on us.

Spending the weekend with Andy, Dana, and Nathan great as always. It was nice to relax, talk about life in general, and play. Nathan is such a fun little guy. He'll be 3 in just under a month. He's always full of questions and still loves cars, trucks, planes, and trains. Saturday afternoon Andy's brother and another friend came over and we role-played the afternoon away which was a blast. As Dana puts it, "we geeked out".

This week we have a "freezing rain day". Really it wasn't all that bad, and I even made it into work without any problems, but all the schools were closed so the office was closed as well. That afternoon I figured I'd try and get some more Christmas shopping done, but was foiled by a tree falling onto some power lines and blacking-out the entire mall. I was standing in Walmart looking at rechargeable alkaline batteries when the lights went off. There was a collective female intake of breath which was pretty funny. Walmart has their cashes on backup power so they cashed us all out. It took me about 20 minutes to get out of the mall and the power was off so I went home.

Work has been a little ... odd lately. Things keep happening and I'm not sure whether to read into them or not. For instance now that all the new people have been hired to replace the three people we lost this September, I seem to be the only one in the department who comes in at 8am and leaves at 4pm which most days means I'm the last one in and the first one to leave. I'm putting in the hours I should be, but I suddenly find myself being the only one not staying longer than I have to each day. If there's something I need to get done then I'll stay late, but it's rare that I have a reason to. Then, with all the people changes I guess the bosses decided it was time to order new name plates for everyone that didn't have one... except me. And one of the new guys got a brand new Mac that he doesn't use, yet I'm stuck with a 3 year old Mac that I use all the time. So I'm definitely feeling forgotten/neglected over here in my corner. In some ways it's nice not being in the same area as the rest of the department, but then it's not so nice being forgotten.

Matthew.