Spring has Sprung

It was a beautiful day in Ottawa. It looks like Spring has finally arrived. Good thing I have the day off tomorrow to enjoy the sunshine. I'm already getting geared up for Ultimate and beach volleyball but right now I'm trying to evaluate how I spend my time. I'm always on the go to one sport or activity or another and sometimes this causes either a lack of sleep or a procrastination to do necessary tasks. The simplest example is cleaning. I just put off things like doing the dishes for too long some weeks because whenever I finally get home from wherever I am that day, I just want to relax a bit and play a game or read a book. Unfortunately, by relaxing, I use up the little time I spend at home not doing work that needs to get done. Does anyone have any suggestions for me to try and organize my time better or motivate myself to do some more work around the house when I do have the time? All that being said, I don't live in a total sty and I do get things done...eventually. I'm just somewhat unhappy with myself when it comes to some of the things I know I have to do but always put off. Guess that's just a side effect of a busy life.

Monday update on Tuesday

Yeah, I'm late a day...so what. I'm still recovering from the weekend. I was out all weekend, mostly at the hockey rink. I did 10 games in 3 days (and only one was on Sunday). And to top it off, I also patrolled on Sunday and curled (we won our last game of the regular season, yay). So yeah, I'm a little tired and I have a wicked headache. So yeah, this post is short and late but I'm just too tired and beat up to worry about it. Don't get me wrong though, I did enjoy most of the weekend, it's just the after effects that I don't like. Hope everyone's weekend went well too.

Here's the link of the week. Quick little video clip from MADTV with some Mac and political humor rolled into one: http://www.glumbert.com/media/irack

V-Ball Week

This week was filled with volleyball. Tons of volleyball. Monday, we won 4-1, yesterday my B-team won 5-0 (as usual), and tonight my A-team won another match 4-1. Both teams are first in their tiers and we'll be getting a bye in the first round of the playoffs (which start after next week). Boy am I tired after all that hitting. Luckily, I have tomorrow off so I can get caught up on my sleep and get some cleaning done around the apartment.

Oh, and for those that haven't seen 300 yet...go see it, especially if you like war/action movies with some gore. If you're a woman (or a guy) who doesn't like that kind of movie, you can pass and go to one of the chick flicks out right now instead. Or coming tomorrow...TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)!! Sweet!! I've been told it's a good new rendition. I can't wait to see it.

Well, off to bed now. I'm beat. Enjoy the weekend!

Quiet St. Patty's Day Weekend

Well, as shocking as it may sound, I didn't make it out anywhere for St. Patrick's Day this year. While everyone was out drinking and having a good time, I stayed home, watched the hockey game and went to bed. Not overly exciting but I was feeling tired and had to ski the next morning so it just didn't seem like a good idea to go out. Yesterday at the ski hill was also the Snow Snake Day. It's just a bunch of activities at the hill as almost a wrap up party (just in case the snow doesn't last much longer, which it won't). The day culminates with the water skimming competition. Basically, skiers and snowboarders trying to work up enough speed from the last pitch of the main hill to skim across a pool of water 100 ft long and about 15 ft wide. It was quite amusing to watch but unfortunately I didn't catch the final few runs because a girl broke her arm and since I wasn't helping around the pool, I got to go with Ali and deal with the broken arm instead of watching the people faceplant into the icy cold water. Good fun though (not the broken arm, the water skimming).

So you like StarWars, well, the links of the week are a couple of funny/neat videos that these two guys put together of them having lightsaber fights. They're both quite well done. Enjoy!
Ryan Vs. Dorkman
Ryan Vs. Dorkman2

Squashed

Well, I've been bitten by the squash bug again. Mike and I went and played last night at the courts in Anne-Marie's apartment building. The courts are a little short but since I haven't played in over a year, I didn't notice much. It didn't take too long for me to get back into it either. I even gave Mike (who plays pretty much every week) a run for his money and won a set 2-1 (best of 3 games). He still ran me pretty good though and I was thoroughly tired last night. I also got a bit of a shin splint (cramp in the shin/ankle) but only in my left leg. Wierd. Anyway, I'm definitely back into the raquet sport stuff. I can't wait to play again and to start playing tennis again too. Spring is just around the corner. I think the ski season is almost done since most of the snow disappeared (at least in the city) this week with the warm temperatures and little bit of rain we had on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Quick last point: won another $40 at poker tonight, but it was mostly due to luck rather than really good play. It seems that we've attracted a few new bodies to the poker circle so hopefully we can have a week with a big enough turnout for a tournament soon. And hopefully my luck carries over to the Super 7 lotto tomorrow (I have a couple free tickets from last week when I bought a ticket on a whim).

Curling Thievery

So we won another curling match (that's two back to back for those that are counting)! It all started with an end with a 3-point steal. Then we stole 2 the next end. Then stole one, and another. After 4 ends we were already ahead 7-0. Then they managed to get a couple and steal a few in the 6th (and last) end but we already had built up that insurmountable lead. Yay for us. I didn't shoot particularly well but I made a couple nice draws and a really important raise of one of our guards in the first couple ends to ensure the robbery that went on. Points were being stolen all over the place.

Other than curling I was, as aforementioned, crazy busy. I skied both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday ended up being a bit of a crap shoot since it rained in the morning and was kind of crummy but there were a lot of patrollers up and we had a pot luck at night (cabane a sucre, or sugar shack to us English folk, themed). I made a cake that was less than stellar but still quite edible. Sunday however, was very nice. Even though I was on race patrol for most of the day, it was a beautiful day to be outside so I didn't mind. Then after curling yesterday, I went over to Wei's for a Chinese fondue. It was a deliciously good time.

Well, I'm still burnt out from the weekend and the time change so I'm heading to bed. Hopefully I don't sleep in past the start of French class tomorrow. Oh, and here's the link(s) of the week, in keeping with the skiing theme from the weekend:

Mont Cascades
Canadian Ski Patrol System (Gatineau Zone)

Stupid Juvenile hockey

So I was all set to have a pretty quiet evening tonight. I'd stop by my ref meeting for half an hour or so but otherwise, it was looking like I might get a night where I actually spent time at home doing...well, whatever I want but preferably nothing. Don't get me wrong, I like staying busy but sometimes I need a break. Anyway, I got a phone call during poker last night and my ref assignor pulled me into reffing a Juvenile game tonight. For those that don't know, Juvenile is what comes after Midget in the hockey levels, so the guys are 19 and 20. Usually it's pretty laid back but has some decently skilled players that are just looking to continue playing hockey. Sometimes though, you get the odd occational idiot that just can't seem to stop whining or loses it for no good reason. Tonight brought both situations out. Why, when a player gets a penalty for something obvious, like clipping the goalie, does he feel like he has to complain? He knows it won't do him any good (in this case it got him tossed for continuing for so long and so loudly). And why can't a team just accept a goal scored late in the game that might put them away? Why does the defense feel like he has to punch out the guy who made a nice play to pull the puck back in front and score on an out of position goalie? Of course this started a "fight" and then everyone but the goalies got into it. Since it's near the end of the season and almost no real punches were thrown, I decided to be nice and only call a few minor penalties instead of kicking them all out. You would think the players would accept this but no, they have to complain about every little thing. Okay, I'm done ranting for now. I just don't understand the stupidity of some players when you either cut them some slack or when something painfully obvious happens and they just can't let it go.

Other than tonight's hockey game, it's been a good week. I won at poker again last night (both by playing well and by hitting some good cards) and I won the payday 50/50 at work! Granted the 50/50 was only $23 but hey, I won for once, and that's what counts. I was feeling lucky so while filling up on gas (at some crazy prices) I thought I'd go in for a couple Super 7 tickets too for the $15 million jackpot. We'll see how far this luck really goes; I may be pushing it.

This weekend looks to be pretty busy with ski patrol on Saturday and Sunday (race patrol on Sunday) as well as a pot luck at the hill on Saturday. I also have curling as usual and then a Chinese fondue Sunday night. Should be busy but a lot of fun. Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Not much to report

It was a nice quiet weekend with only one reffing game, curling, and then volleyball tonight. The only other thing of consequence I did was pick up Anne-Marie and Jay from the airport (which took a good 2 hour wait for the late arrival and customs). At least we had a good sushi dinner afterwards. On another note (that I wasn't going to bring up yet but I may as well), I put in my 60 days' notice to leave my apartment. It's a good apartment; quiet, beautiful view, relatively spacious; but it's a little more expensive than I'd like and it was unbearably hot last summer and I'd rather not go through that again. Right now I'm looking at a few alternatives, one which involves moving in with a friend from pool who just bought her own place downtown in the fall. She'd like to save some money and thought of getting a roommate. I'm not totally committed to the idea yet but it has its upsides. You'll probably hear more about this as it goes on. I should be in a new place of somekind (maybe even a cardboard box) by May 1st. If anyone in Ottawa has any other suggestions on where to move, let me know.

Link of the week this week is a funny site but it has a little more crude humor than some readers can stand. If you like the stupid stuff, check out Pointless Waste of Time (PWOT). In particular, if you like video games, check out their latest article, "The 12 Awesomest Games of 2010". Also look at the daily "Craption" contest where you can submit funny quotes to wierd pictures. Good stuff. Until Thursday (barring some exciting event in the next 2 days).

Poker is fun

Well, it was the semi-regular weekly poker game today. I've managed to be up a considerable amount 3 out of the last 4 times we've played. I'd say my luck is turning around but I don't want to jinx it. I also had a few people from work over a little earlier to just hang out and drink and eat a bit. It was fun to just relax and chat with some friends for once. We never seem to really do that much anymore outside of work. Anyway, I'm dog tired and I still have French in the morning so I'd better get to bed. There's also a lot of snow coming our way so it could be an interesting day tomorrow.

NOOO!!! Bye Smitty...we'll miss you

Well, the impossible happened. Ryan Smyth is no longer an Edmonton Oiler. Now I like Kevin Lowe but you had to find a way to get this contract done. You can't just trade away the heart of and soul of the team. If Smyth comes back to Edmonton, some may be forgiven but I think we've seen the last of Smyth with an Oil drop on his chest. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go cry myself to sleep (note that I almost did cry when I saw this trade on Trade Center today).

Trade deadline day

Before I start rambling on about hockey, let me sum up my weekend. I am super tired and I think this weekend I actually burned most of the extra calories that I ate (read: drank) when Dean was here. I reffed 3 games on Friday after a week of little to no sleep so I was already burned out Friday night at 10 and the weekend hadn't even really started yet. All Saturday I was on the hill patrolling. It was a busy day with lots of work to do so I had quite the workout. My only desire was to crash and sleep on Saturday night but instead I went over to Mike Kim's and played some poker. Good times but I ended up losing. Then I got up early again on Sunday to head back to the hill to patrol for a race we were hosting there. Luckily, because I was only really on race patrol, I was able to go home at 2:00 after the race was done. I came home and crashed for a few hours before I "finished the war", ie. finished passing Call of Duty 3 on the Wii. Lots of fun but a little too short for me to consider buying the game for what it's selling for now. That's pretty much my weekend and today was a normal Monday topped off with a mediocre pool performance.

Okay, so as you hockey fans would know, tomorrow is trade deadline day in the NHL. I thought I'd weigh in on a few things before they happen. First of all, you should know that I love this time of year. All the speculation, all the drama, all the deadline deals and deciding on who improved their team the most. So I don't think too many big blockbusters will go down this year but hopefully the Oilers can pick up a top 4 defenseman and make a good run at the playoffs. More importantly though, hopefully K-Lowe signs Ryan Smyth. I don't think the Oiler faithful (including me) could really forgive him if he lets Smitty go. Just pay the man, you know he's worth every penny, and he bleeds blue and orange (I refuse to buy into the blue and copper scheme). For you trade deadline coverage and all rumors/speculation hockey related, there are several links of the week...check them out:
www.nhl.com
www.hockeybuzz.com
www.spectorshockey.net
www.hockeytraderumors.com
TSN's Trade Centre
TSN's Trade List

Enjoy the madness. Who knows, I might jump on tomorrow and post my thoughts if something big or contraversial comes up.

Dean's Visit and Call of Duty

So Dean came out for a week as I mentioned before. It was again good to have someone from home come out and see my "new" life in the capital. He got to visit family here and see some of the sights, including skating on the canal and the rest of the stuff you would typically look at in downtown Ottawa. I got to hang out with a good friend for a week and have someone to watch and advise me on my reffing stuff (because the supervisions done on me this year have been useless). We both got to play some poker, drink, and eat out a lot, and play some Wii; good times were had by all. Most importantly, we got to see the Oilers play the Sens. It was a lot of fun going to the game and there were a ton of Oiler fans at ScotiaBank Place. Too bad the Oilers lost but at least they pulled out a 3rd period comeback and got one point from the shootout loss. It's going to be a tough home stretch for the Oilers but I have faith they can still make the playoffs.

Now that Dean is gone, I can play my Wii again without worrying about him wanting to play Zelda. I rented Call of Duty tonight (because I don't feel like cleaning up)...boy is that ever an addictive game. I just want to keep playing it. It's basically a WWII first person shooter but it's pretty fun and the graphics aren't bad. Maybe it's just because I haven't played any good FPSs in a while but I'm really enjoying it. Well, back to fight one more battle and then head to bed.

Ah, I missed one already

So only a few weeks into my regular updates and I already missed one...but I have a good excuse, honest. Dean is here visiting and arrived last Thursday. I was busy cleaning and recovering from a stick to the head that I took on Wednesday night's hockey game. Then it was time to visit with Dean and WIN again at poker (I actually took almost all of everyone's money). I never really had time to post. Anyway, it's been a good visit with Dean so far, I'll summarize it more this Thursday after he has left. We're going to the Sens/Oilers game tomorrow night so I'm pumped for that. The Oilers really need to win. Hopefully we bring them some good luck.

If you're bored sometime and you want a tough puzzle to work on, check out the Funny Farm. It's an interesting word game with naming things that are related (kind of like degrees of separation). Warning though, it's addictive and tough.

Who says volleyball isn't a workout?

So tonight was filled with volleyball. I played with my Statcan A-tier team from 5-7 and then with my Statcan B-tier team from 7-9. Boy am I exhausted. My legs felt like Jello and it required tremendous effort to walk sometime around 7:40 (second game of the second match). At least I caught a second wind which was enough to keep me going until I got home and could collapse on the couch. And since I am so tired and I just finished making some of my "famous" butterscotch/peanut butter squares for the bake sale at work tomorrow, I'm going to bed.

Hurry Hard!!

Well this isn't a Monday or Thursday but I thought it warrants a posting. My curling team got our first win tonight. We managed to play some good defensive curling; if you can really call messing up the paths to the house when we are shot rock defensive curling. And afterwards we went over to a couple on the other team's apartment for dinner (it was planned before, it wasn't like we won a bet or anything). Good food, good company, and beforehand, good (well, mediocere) curling. Hopefully this starts us on the path towards many more victories. Either way, we're having fun.

Pan's Labyrinth + Link of the Week

So Tuesday night, Mike convinced me to go to a late showing of Pan's Labyrinth. If you haven't heard of this movie, it's basically a gorey fantasy movie that takes place in Spain during World War II. The movie is completely in Spanish with English subtitles. But man is it ever gore filled. That being said, if you don't mind reading subtitles and seeing a few disturbing scenes, go see this movie. I thought it was very well done with an interesting story.

Now for the link of the week: http://www.applegeeks.com/lite/index.php?aglitecomic=2007-02-07
In case you've never read the Apple Geeks web comic before, here's the basics. It's a couple of mac lovers who have a regularly updated comic on Mondays and Thursdays with a basic little short black and white comic called Apple Geeks Lite that is updated on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I point to this specific AG Lite comic because I just played Rayman: Raving Rabbids on the Wii (but check out some of the other comics because they are hilarious). It was a lot of fun but I think I'll hold off on buying it for now since I was starting to get a little tired of some of the minigames before too long. It does prove that the Wii is inspiring a lot of new styles of games (and some new, albeit wierd, ways to control your gaming experience).

Well, that's it for now. Have a good weekend.

The day after Super Sunday

Well, I just got home from pool so that means it's time for the Monday update (ha, and I'll be some of you thought I'd already let it slide). This weekend was, of course, the Superbowl. Now I'm not a huge fan of the NFL but I do watch the odd game from time to time and I'm all for getting together to watch sporting events. Luckily Andrew was kind enough to invite a bunch of us over to watch it; a good time was had by all (except the Chicago Bears).

Before the party yesterday I was at curling. We lost again but I felt some improvements near the end. My sense of weight is still horrible and I seem to throw too hard often but when we finished 10 minutes early (not enough time for another end) I decided to practice by throwing all 16 rocks back to the start. That helped me get a better sense but if any of you curlers out there have a way for me to better judge my weight when I'm throwing, I'm all ears.

Well, that's it for now, I'm heading to bed so I can get up in time for French tomorrow. Enjoy your week.

Poker and Volleyball + Link of the week

Well the last couple of days have been...you guessed it, busy. On Tuesday night I had three hockey games to ref on the opposite end of the city (actually had three good games, well, good for house league). Then, despite taking a slap shot right in the ankle bone and tweaking my knee on the ice on Tuesday, I played volleyball both Wednesday and today. Both of my teams won their matches 5-0. We didn't play particularly well either night but we covered each other well and played a pretty good team game to keep up the winning streak. And then after volleyball tonight, I hosted my semi-regular weekly poker game. With a strange twist of luck/fate, I managed to catch good cards tonight and ended up over 6 times the buy in. I feel bad because poor Mike gave up a fair chunk of his chips to me when I had the good hands. That's the way the cards fall sometimes though (not usually my way of course). Well, that's all for the week (except Friday but we'll count that as part of the weekend). Looks like I'll be on the hill somewhere on Saturday and even though curling should be on for Sunday, I should only miss a bit of the Superbowl. Enjoy the start of February and Winterlude if you are in Ottawa.

Oh, and here's a new little feature I'll like to start semi-regularly. When I find a neat site, or just a link to a funny video, picture, or blog entry, I'll post it as the link of the week. To start I suggest you check out Defective Yeti. It's a blog about random stuff but usually has some amusing posts from time to time. Check out his favorite posts for some of the funniest stuff he's written. Enjoy!

Let the regular updates...begin

Okay, so I'm going to try this for a while. Updates on Mondays and Thursdays...even if it's just a short post, or a link of the week posting, or just a weather report or a sports update. We'll see how long I can keep that up. Onto my first Monday update...

Today I started my first rotation of three as a recruit at Statistics Canada. Though I've already been working there for over a year and I officially got my CS-01 classification just before Christmas, the first official rotational position started today. These rotations are 8 month terms in different divisions within the department so you get exposure to different styles of management and different aspects of Stats Can. I'm of course starting in the division that I did my internship in and brought me back for the last year, Tax Data. I like the people I work with and I don't mind the work I do. It's been a pretty good environment to work in. That being said, it'll also be good to get out in 8 months and see a new position where I should learn new things and meet new people.

Well, that's it for work. Not much other than the normal schedule going on outside work right now...except for that I finished Zelda for Wii. Wow, what a game. I think I might just start over and do it from the beginning again...after I find all the extra stuff I missed before I went through the final dungeon/castle. So much fun and such a good story. It sucks you in and has such deep content and such a vast world that you can just run around doing small tasks and spend hours without getting bored. Well, I'm off to bed now that Hyrule (the kingdom in the game) is safe again...for now.

Quick update

As you might have noticed, I finally got my New Year's/Christmas vacation post up. I'd saved it as a draft and never actually got around to finishing it until tonight. I'm going to get back to regular posting soon. In fact, I think I'm going to try scheduled postings. Something like regular updates on Mondays and Thursdays or something with possible other postings when I'm in the mood. I also want to start a link of the week where I either link to a specific article or page that I find interesting. I'll try to start that this week sometime.

For now though, not a whole lot to report. Work continues, pool continues, volleyball continues with one small addition: I'm playing in both the A and B divisions in the Statcan volleyball league. Ski Patrolling is picking up now that I'm fully qualified (finished my on hill training and got my jacket last week) and now that we actually have some snow (in addition to all the fake stuff). And curling just started up tonight. It's tons of fun but I have a long way to improve. Practice makes perfect I guess.

Oh, and big news...I finally got a Wii. For those that are wondering if I misspelt a word...the Wii is Nintendo's newest console with a motion sensing controller. Very cool and tons of fun. I can't wait to get some more controllers and try out some of those multiplayer games. Zelda is occupying what little free time I have right now though. Anyway, that's it for me for now. Look for the start of regular postings coming soon.