Friday, August 29, 2014

surgery went well bathroom progressing

Went to get the cancer on my nose removed today, three stitches, not sure you can call it surgery but I was under the knife, it does sound more dramatic as surgery. We are going to paint the bathroom this weekend, slow but will get us a new bathroom! Theresa, congrats on your retirement I think today is your last day isn't it.
Working for the next little while at Encana, also Steeplejack would lije me back nd maybe weyco (hehe, doubt they will call but you never know) thinking of going to visit Klowna soon, just not sure when, will work it in the schedule. 

Monday, August 25, 2014

Proof that Laura was in the beer tent at folkfest. She drank that whole jug in front of her.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

One week

A week to go until retirement. I have been training people, a most tedious way to spend my time. I just want to be done. Also it feels as if everyone has already mentally said good-bye so when they see me it's, "Oh, are you still here?" As you predicted, Allison. I hang around the minimum amount of time I am needed and get out of there as fast as I can.

I feel I need a holiday. I didn't take time off this summer, thinking I would make it easier for people at work to get theirs in, and the weekends have been busy. If we weren't away or going to a wedding we had the boys for all or part of every weekend. Maybe the rest of my life will be a holiday.

Yesterday I left work early and lay around all afternoon reading. Quite nice.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Folk Fest

I also had a good time at FF.  I went up a few days early as T&G were not coming until Friday.  Grace and Dallyn were excellent hosts, and the location of their house is pretty good for getting to Gallagher Park, only about a five minute drive.

I had not heard of lots of the acts that were playing so choosing a stage to go to was kind of hard, but all in all I think I picked the right ones to go to.  I tried to balance it between concerts and the theme stages with several different performers.  Thursday and Friday we sat near the top of the hill and watched the mainstage on the big screens, Sat and Sun, people got up(Theresa got up both days)  and went to the lottery to get in line, so those two days we were much closer.  Both of the spots have their advantages, the top of the hill because it is easier at the end of the night to get to the parking spot, and nearer the stage, because less hill climbing when you return to the tarp.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend.





Sunday, August 17, 2014

folk fest /camping

I had great time at both.  Good company, good food and wonderful music. I am so glad I went.  Had a super time camping with Henry, fires and fishing. Henry caught a walleye and wilf two jackfish Ally had to work so she was unable to come that would have made it better.  Thanks to Al for her hospitality. Olive is very entertaining, Magda was not seen much. Working at Steeplejack again next week it is a very enjoyable place to work, small office with extremely nice people. I said I would put up camping pictures, here they are:





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Saturday, August 16, 2014

procrastination

Am putting off cutting the grass, even though I don't really mind doing it.
Kris roared through town again earlier this week.
Our niece Laura is planning on a visit in a little bit too. She is working for the invasive species something or other for her summer job and will have some time off at the end of summer.
Totally embarrassing thing happened to me at work yesterday. Went to bathroom. Came out, helped a patient get something. Went back into care station for second time after going to bathroom. Two nurses and and two plant services guys in station. As one guy leaving, he leans over and whispers in my ear "Lisa you have some tissue on your pants".
Indeed, there was. Coming over the waistband of pants. And stuck in a wet blob on the butt of my pink pants. And I had been eating cherries the day before.
I couldn't do anything other than start laughing hysterically, as one of the nurses standing right beside me muttered, " well that's embarrassing ".
Indeed, it was.

Thursday, August 07, 2014

Vacation

The rest of my trip to the island was good.  Will and I went to the beach one day, and watched all kinds of people learn how to surf.  On Sunday I went to church and met some of Will's parishioners, they all love him and are very happy he is there.  I stayed in Nanaimo for the last couple of nights, in a hotel with a great water view.  I poked around downtown, went to the museum, where there was an excellent display all about immigrants to Canada, produced by the Pier 21 museum.  When I got to Red Deer Court and the boys were there to meet me and take me home.

We had Grady on the long weekend, Court was at a ball tournament in Edson and Kane at his Dad's.  We had fun and Grady sure enjoyed eating saskatoons right from the tree.  On Monday, we had a little  birthday party for Kane, which was good.  He helped me make his cake, and had a slurp or two of the batter.

Tuesday morning I caught the bus and came to Edmonton.  I had coffee with my friend Polly, and caught up on all the IBM news, the stopped by the store to see Kay and Evelyn and got all their news.  Sam came over last night for supper at Grace and Dallyn's.  Heard a little about his trip.  This morning I went over to G&K for a visit with Uncle George.  Off to FF tonight with Laura and Grace and Dallyn, should be fun.


Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Seattle

Mom and I went to Seattle this weekend and met up with Allison. We went to Pike place, the beach,walked around, and had some really good food with time for naps. What else can you ask for in a long weekend getaway?
Has been so hot here, still 35. We have had the ac on everyday. Last year, I think we only had it on a day or two,as house is fine up to 30 degrees.
Not really anything else going on. We had the Robin's here once we were back from Ontario. Then the following week Kris and Davis were here for a few days. So have been visiting with company.
Would like to go to drive in this summer, just waiting for an OK movie to show.

Monday, August 04, 2014

Happy Birthday Kane


Sunday, August 03, 2014

New job; re-signed lease; Chicago; weddings; new phone; school

New job:
Almost since I joined my company back in the heady days of 2012, I've wanted to change jobs but hopefully remain with the same organization. After some negotiations, I achieved this goal and moved from my former role (power market simulation modeling) to a new one (coordinating the company's long-term corporate financial projections) as of June 1. 

Although it's in a different area of the company, I'm familiar with many of the people I'm now working with, which helped ease the transition. The deal is that I will do this job for approximately one year, before shuffling around on another developmental rotation. I don't expect much of the new job; in fact, I believe it will be stressful and, in many ways, unrewarding. However, I will gain excellent exposure to the whole company, which theoretically makes me eminently employable (assuming I don't make a hash of the planning process).

CPA:
The key bargaining chip I was able to use to convince my superiors to move me was my entry into the Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) program. As you may be aware, there were previously three different accounting designations in Canada: the CA (Chartered Accountant); the CMA (Certified Management Accountant); and the CGA (Certified General Accountant). The three governing bodies eventually realized what everyone else had concluded long ago: that having three different accounting designations made no sense whatsoever. After the usual posturing, rhetoric, and cockfighting that we've all come to expect from organizations of this ilk, they finally agreed to amalgamate under the CPA banner. Since I require two additional years of accounting experience before I qualify for the designation, this was the perfect excuse to change roles.

The new program looks much like the old CA program: to wit, six online, facilitator-led modules of approximately eight weeks each (plus a 3-4 hour exam) followed by a three-day final exam after the sixth module. I recently completed the second of these modules and am now working on the third. There's still quite a lot of kinks in the program as I'm part of the first group through, but I trust they'll slowly start to iron these out.

Chicago:
In connection to my new job, I went to Chicago for some training on the new financial system I'm using. I had evenings free but was usually pretty tired after training all day. However, I still managed to fit in the following activities:

-Going to the observation deck of the Willis (Sears) Tower. I have always loved large, man-made structures of any type - the huge overpasses, the gargantuan power dams, the bridges that stretch to the horizon, the factories that cover a dozen city blocks, the pipe organs that have lorded over our cathedrals for centuries. These are the expressions of our defiance of nature; they stand as testaments to the vision, ingenuity, and imagination of the human race. 

So naturally I had to go up to the top of the Willis Tower. They have a glass floor that extends over the side of the building in certain places so you can look down 103 floors to the street below. 

-Went on an architectural river tour. Since most of Chicago burned down in 1871, the city was completely rebuilt with all-modern materials. This is not to say the buildings there are monotonous - far from it - and this was a nice opportunity to see some really cool ones. I had a really good river guide and since I went in the evening, it was not too hot. I learned about how city engineers managed to completely reverse the flow of the river when they figured out that the polluted water flowing into Lake Michigan was poisoning the population, which strikes me as incredible.

-Had a Chicago deep-dish pizza. This was excellent. I also found I didn't mind eating and traveling on my own. For one thing, as long as you're interested in sitting at the bar, you can usually bypass long lines of people waiting for tables. I just chilled out and read a book or the paper when I went out - rather a nice way to relax at the end of the day.

-Went to Millenium Park. Yes, I did see the infamous "bean" - Chicago is big on public art. They have a very cool amphitheatre there as well and were playing Field of Dreams when I went there. Americans sure love their baseball.

Every day for lunch, the training team went out for lunch, as suggested by the lone Chicagoean in the group. We went and had some Al's Italian Beef, Potbelly's (like a better version of Subway), Joey Yee's Chinese takeout, Chipotle's, and last but not least, Manny's. Now a word about Manny's. Imagine the stereotypical Jewish deli that comes right out of a comic book or a Mordecai Richler novel - old moustachioed men in white uniforms and chef's hats, a metal counter that you push your red plastic tray along, and more pastrami than you can shake a meat-fork at: that was Manny's. Apparently Obama eats there when he's in town. Anyway, I ate the largest roast-beef sandwich I've ever seen and topped it off with a latke.

Lease:
In other news, I signed a year lease extension at my place on Bellamy Hill. I'm still assessing whether I'd like to continue to rent or whether I should consider buying something. I'll revisit that decision next year.

Weddings:
I've got my fourth wedding of the year to go to in Rocky in a couple of weeks, so that should be good. I went to a bachelor party out at the Brazeau dam last weekend, the day after getting back from Chicago.

Phone:
I finally graduated to a smart-phone - a Motorola Moto X - after my trusty Samsung gave up the ghost a few weeks ago. I quite like the new one so far.

After the rebuild, Chicago kept to the grid system.
If only they had numbered their streets as well.
Marina City, a condo building in Chicago.
I'm actually not sure what building this is but
its vaguely castillic look entranced me.
The Wrigley building (of chewing-gum fame).

Looking down from 103 floors up.