-Lost in the woods-
______________

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

   Monday, May 22  

I'm starting to get really excited. I've been putting off getting excited, because I always assume the worst, like some last minute thing will fall through, something will get cancelled, someone else will have been promised the job and I might lose the contract because of it. That hasn't happened yet this time. In 12 hours or so, I'll call in to my new boss (!!!) and find out if he wants me to come to work, write a test, or go back to sleep for the day. And whatever happens, it doesn't matter, I don't have to worry about when I need to get in sleep to get back to work and deal with chat issues. Cause I'm done. And the schedule will be worked around us, not the customer. There is no customer, just water and weather conditions. I love the Marine forecast recordings. They're like an old friend. I called them all the time when I worked out at the kayak place, and again when I worked at the marina. Now I get to call them again. Yeah, funny the little things make me happy.

   [ posted by T~ @ 5/22/2006 09:05:00 p.m. ] [ ]

I'm almost done I'm almost done I'm almost done I'm almost done I'm almost done I'm almost done I'm almost done I'm almost done I'm almost done I'm almost done I'm almost done I'm almost done
I just have 6 more hours left. I'm really hoping that it goes faster than normal. And I really hope I get paid extra because it's the holiday, and don't get shafted because it's my last day.

   [ posted by T~ @ 5/22/2006 06:09:00 p.m. ] [ ]

Thursday, May 18

I'm sitting here really not caring or paying attention to work, and I realize that I'm frighteningly addicted to many things Harry Potter. I just don't understand why I'm so fascinated with it! I check jk rowlings website regularly for any smidgen of an update, and I'll randomly keep up with the massive amount of postings that other theorizing potter'verse obsesees post on any new little tidbit of news or hint of an update about future writings or movies. I mean, yeah, they're good books. For some reason, I get a lot of comfort out of reading the series, like catching up with an old friend. I've read all of the books at least twice, bordering on four times for some of the earlier books. I know, almost everyone enjoys the books. But does anyone else hope to have a reading room in their future house that is some sort of library/den affair that has the look and feel of the gryffindor common room? I love the feeling that room gives, either reading and imagining it or seeing it in the movie, with the overstuffed comfy chairs by the fire place, wood paneling, tapestries on the walls, tall windows... I know, it's not practically to have a castle in PEI, for starters, sandstone would make a terrible castle, and secondly, most dreadful creatures I'd employ for moat duty would have trouble with our climate. I'm glad that when my future children grow up I'll be able to teach them to read on Harry Potter books, I think it'll be great for their imagination.

   [ posted by T~ @ 5/18/2006 10:37:00 p.m. ] [ ]

Tuesday, May 16

And the day, draws near
I'm excited because my last day will be Monday (well, I might know that when they get the schedule up, but no, it's not there yet), but there are some things that I'll miss here. The whole feeling of connectedness to 12 different things at the same time and keeping on top of them when it's busy gives me a false sense of actually dealing with people. Not that people who are chatters aren't people, but really, I don't know them, hopefully never will, and in the end, really don't care about them or their issues, or who called them fat and ugly. Most people on my messenger list are ten million times more interesting, and if I'm lucky, I can actually sit down and have a beer with them. I will miss a lot of my co-workers though. Hopefully I'll still be able to see them around, and they won't all forget about me, or our fabulous time spent together clock watching here.
This weekend, I have big plans. I'm excited. I think you should be too. Friday will bring the opening of the DaVinci Code, and I'm going to break with my "I'm never going to come to an opening night ever again" self promise, and I plan to attend the gala event. I then work Saturday day, for my last now scheduled shift, hopefully my second last. So I have Saturday night off!! I want to go to a pub that evening I think. Sit there, and drink beer with good people, and watch for example some sort of sporting event and take bets on which local sports team will be successful in their given sport. Or something along those lines. Maybe have some ribs or wings or some sort of pub fare that they sell cheap to convince you to stay and drink more beer. If you're reading this, you're probably on that "good people" list, and should be wanting to come. All are invited, unless you wish to be considered above good people, and if so, your name will be scratched from the list :P

   [ posted by T~ @ 5/16/2006 06:53:00 p.m. ] [ ]

Monday, May 15

Oh what a beautiful day!
God it was nice out today! I got 2 loads of laundry done, bagged 6 more bags of leaves (yeah, the ones that I put off from last fall) and mowed the front lawn. Binx was not happy that I kept her inside while I was obviously having the time of my life outside, but hey, I'd prefer her unhappy that chopped by a mower. After that, I took her for her first visit to the university so I could get the whole transcript thing straightened out. I had sent two last month, two days apart, to two different universities, and both of them got back to me and indicated that they couldn't go any farther because I hadn't sent them my official transcripts. I went back and very nicely requested that they send another, and they looked at me like I was stupid and told me that I had already requested it, and they'd sent it. I didn't want to sound accusatory, so I just put it to them as : I'm sure they were sent, but unfortunately both of them must have been lost in the mail, because neither university received them. Would it be much of a bother to have an extra copy sent? I'd really appreciate it, thanks. For somereason, they thought it was lovely that I'd asked like that, and were told me they were happy to do so. Poor registrars office, I can just imagine the angry angry people that they get to deal with sometimes.
Congratulations to everyone who graduated over the weekend, as well as to those who were accepted into their universities/adventures of choice! I start my new job next Tuesday, and now that I know I'm going to be done here with MSN, I'm kind of enjoying my job. I'm actually fairly efficient at what I do. I didn't really think about it till I worked with the new guy (who's nice and pretty good) and watched him as he's getting the hang of it, finding out what he missed in training, picking up habits, etc. I kept wanting to jump in and help him, or do it because I'm so much faster at it, then I remembered that I was just as slow and didn't know all the little tricks too when I started, so I let him do his own thing and told him it was right. He'll have fun with it too I hope, until he decides that it's unpleasant here and that he has to leave.
Yeah, so I've rambled on about nothing here, it's been the most boring un sensational post ever. I'm sorry if you've actually read it all the way through, I'm sure it's been disappointing.
In fantastic news though: DaVinci this Friday!

   [ posted by T~ @ 5/15/2006 06:36:00 p.m. ] [ ]

Thursday, May 11

Finally, after a full year, it has happened. I have a new job.

I'll be working with a lovely classmate from Marine Biology (she'll be doing her honors, I'll just be doing the work), and a Dr from DFO doing Eel research as well as database updating. Sound impressive? I certainly think it's a step up! Definite raise in pay, full time hours, 16 weeks of work. Slight downside of the fact that eels are nocturnal, and so to observe and research them, the work needs to be done at night. In Basin Head. Am I put off? HELL NO!! I'd say a night spent on a boat in basin head getting better pay and actually doing something along the lines of what I want to do is about, oooohh 10 million times better than a call center night shift, where they'll give me an extra 1$/hr as compensation for ruined mental/physical health, and decline of all social skills and abilities. And as a bonus, the database work will be done at the DFO building beside the coast guard, so I can very easily bike there. I really enjoyed biking to work (on nice days) when I worked at the marina, so yay, I get to do it again! And did I mention it was on a boat? Oh yeah, I'm working on a boat again.
I totally lucked out on this one. I had been talking to this Dr about a possible masters, but since I didn't want to move to Halifax for two years, I had to turn him down, but thank god I did it nicely and professionally! He actually took me at my word when I asked him to keep me in mind for any future projects, even if they were on a volunteer basis. So, he called me up and asked me to come down and talk about a position they were putting together. I was expecting just a "here's what I'm thinking, are you interested in applying?" type deal, and it turned into "show me every knot you know, what is the life cycle of the Atlantic Salmon, how many 100W lighbulbs would it take to blow a standard circuit breaker, and why does latitude increase as you move left across a map of Canada?" And then he offered me the job. And I took it. Then I went back to work and quit. And that felt really good.
So I put in my two weeks to be professional, and put off my start date at my new job so that I could do so. Someone whispered to me >>hey, careful, don't burn any bridges...<< so I did my best to keep my absolute estaticness in check, and not scream out how happy I was that I was leaving hell. Have they tried to make me feel guilty since? Kinda. More than a little bit. Have I felt bad about it? Nah, not really at all. I'll miss my coworkers, but I'm kinda hoping that the fact that myself and another very pleasant tech have quit in the past month from my department will be looked on as a reflection as poor management "restructuring" decisions since no one had quit in over a year.
This is kind of scary. The job is 16 weeks, so come September, I'll need to do something new. Might just kick my arse down the right road for once.

   [ posted by T~ @ 5/11/2006 04:52:00 p.m. ] [ ]

Monday, May 8

Summer Feet
With the lovely weather spell, it's become apparent that it's time to break out the summer shoes again. Over the weekend, I took out the ol' reef flipflops, and was very surprised that after wearing them for a couple of hours, my feet actually hurt! I couldn't figure it out till I realized that I've been wearing socks and shoes all winter, and my tender tootsies have the sincere need to toughen up. As today is International No Sock Day , I've broken out my new summer shoes, that, of course, were purchased months ago when all the summer shoes were on sale because it was winter. Sometimes my bizarre shopping habits bear fruit. Everyone else here thinks I'm absolutely crazy, which is probably because I've been here way to long. (New news to come on that tomorrow hopefully)

Progress with the puppy is being made, she's notably much less bitey, and very manipulative when she wants to be up on your lap for a nap. I was at first against this, since wet smelly dogs don't go well with furniture, but hey, she's a puppy, and she's really cute. I'll eventually get her a dog couch protector, then she can sit on that. You've got to let her get away with some things, and she'll be seriously lacking in the people food department. She still sleeps in a kennel in my room at night though, and that's not changing. Well, maybe eventually switch the kennel with her basket, but no puppies sleeping on the bed. At night. Right. House training still has some minor accidents, but for the majority, she makes it outside. Right now, I think it's party because I know when she's going to need to go, and I get her there before she has the chance to do anything else. I have no idea how I trained Choco to let me know when he needed to go out, but that's one valuable piece of information I'd like to be remembering. Thank you to those who have visited her already, and as well to those who brought her treats, she loves her toys! Doesn't matter that they're the same size as she is, they'll still get dragged through the house and up the stairs. We have mastered the challenge of getting up most stairs, but not of going down. It's funny. The cat has switched her technique of running upstairs to get away from her to running downstairs and sitting just out of reach. She's a sneaky cat, and we all thought she was dumb. I knew she was hiding some form of intelligence up there.

More to come later, but for now I've written far too much about my puppy. People might catch on that I have no life.

   [ posted by T~ @ 5/08/2006 09:33:00 a.m. ] [ ]

Friday, May 5

Puppies are very busy little creatures. Very cute too though, so it evens out. I don't think I realized how much free time I used up before just laying in bed, watching tv, or doing nothing on the internet. Running after a puppy who puts everything in her mouth, chases the cat, and goes to the bathroom at -.5 seconds ~ blink and you missed your chance to get her to the yard ~ kinda sucks up a good chunk of time. And that's only in 24 hours! Eventually I'll post pictures. It may take a while though, since I can't do it at work, and I don't' think I'll get much time on the comp at home. If you'd like to see her, please give me a call and drop by, she likes new people, and I like people that I already know. I like the ones I don't know generally too, but I'm fond of those I do know.

Apparently my blog doesn't work in firefox. Which is unfortunate. Does anyone know a fix for that? I'd appreciate any help, doesn't strike me that I'd figure that one out myself.

   [ posted by T~ @ 5/05/2006 07:48:00 p.m. ] [ ]

Good news!
Binx has arrived, she's doing well, made it here with a clean crate, and she's a little ball of energy and teeth. I will be posting pictures soon, she's pretty damn cute.

   [ posted by T~ @ 5/05/2006 01:27:00 a.m. ] [ ]

Monday, May 1

Thought I'd change up the template. Let me know what you think. Thank you to Chris for all his help!

   [ posted by T~ @ 5/01/2006 06:25:00 p.m. ] [ ]

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. . .

Stupid freaking minor set backs. Binx was supposed to be flying home last night, but unfortunately, no dice. Some puppy diarrhea has her still at the breeders on puppy medication for another week. I hope that they'll be able to reschedule her flight for Friday, but no word on that yet. A whole week of build up, after 7 months of waiting very patiently. I suppose another 5 days isn't the end of the world, but a damn shitty start to my supposedly fabulous month of May. I really hope it's not a sign of things to come, cause I really need a good month.

Gas going up again doesn't help either, but really, who expected anything different? All things considered, I think I'd rather they gouge our gas prices during the summer when we don't use nearly as much house fuel, and when our tourism is higher. Let the tourists pay more for their gas here, to fund our wonderfully useful and absolutely necessary government busywork programs. I guess I feel that way now because I never go anywhere. Might be different if I actually took a vacation and went somewhere. Since that doesn't happen, we'll cross that bridge if I ever get the chance to cross it.

Man, it isn't even 10 on a Monday, and I'm already in a fantastically shitty mood. Great.

   [ posted by T~ @ 5/01/2006 08:51:00 a.m. ] [ ]