Hey everyone!

So our first day of travel is over, and we didn’t get quite as far as we would have liked…  We were aiming for Idaho Falls, Idaho, but ended up in Helena, MT.  A late start, coupled with a shorter day of driving brought us up a little short.  But that’s ok, we’ll make it up on Sunday!

The first day was mostly uneventful…  My test of Tom Tom guidance software running on the Palm was mediocre at best… The Palm would frequently run out of memory and randomly crash, and when it did so, it seemed to corrupt the map data for whatever area you were in…  When this happened, every time you would load Tom Tom while you were still in that area, the map would just crash…  Tom Tom will no longer navigate Medicine Hat, AB, Taber AB, or Helena, MT… it just crashes if I try!

We had no trouble getting across the border, aside from some remarks of how we were traveling to the city of Lost Wages…  The inspector did ask why we were travelling with invalid passports, to which we replied “Huh?!”  He then showed us the passports, with our unsigned signature lines plainly visible, and jokingly said “You’re government puts a signature line there for a reason!”  Oops.

We found the trip through Montana to be quite scenic, especially after passing Great Falls and moving on to Helena.  The twisting roads through the mountains were an entertaining ride, and had Chantale freaking out (I do NOT drive too fast, really).  We snapped lots of pictures from the car, and stopped at a scenic area to grab some more…  The picture above was taken just after Great Falls at a scenic point.

We finally ended up in Helena, MT, one of the most confusing cities I’ve ever driven around…  Just trying to find a hotel was a nightmare…  The Quality Inn and Super 8 would not honour their coupons from the book, stating that the rooms at those rates were all gone.  Extremely annoying, especially considering their parking lots were almost empty.  What, do they have three rooms at that rate?  The Motel 6 right across the street though was happy to see us, and gave us a room for their advertised price, which ended up being less than the other two hotels!  And I must say I’m quite impressed with the room… small, but clean, and very quiet here!  I recommend Motel 6 in Helena if you’re passing through… Only about $60 per night after tax!

Anyways, time for another day of driving…  Will check in tonight!

Categories: Vacation
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Yep, it’s a new toy all right…  stay tuned, I’ll tell you more about it later… for now I just thought I’d put up some drool-worthy pics

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This is a test post to see if stuff is showing up.

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It’s official now…

After being called Mia… and then Sammy, and briefly Monkey, the cat that was formerly known as all those names is now officially known as Nibbler.

As you probably already know, the name Nibbler is a reference to Nibbler from Futurama.  Nibbler is a loveable cat-like creature/character that turns out to be a supreme being from another planet who is involved in saving all of humanity in at least two shows.  If you haven’t watched Futurama, you should.  Go do it now.  And what better time to watch it than now, with new Futurama episodes (For the first time in some 4 or 5 years) are returning to TV in November.  Don’t miss it!

Finally, for those who don’t know, we have also returned to our MMORPG roots and started playing SWG again.  In honor of the amazing show that is Futurama, we’ve named our guild “doop” for Democratic Order Of Planets, with it’s home base being Neutropolis on the planet Talus.  We are trying to play a bit on the comedic/light side, so lots of fun is in store!  If you have no strong opinion of that, and would like to get involved, you already know what to do!

Categories: Random Ramblings
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Chantale took a vacation in July (without me!) and visited her family in Quebec…  You can view the pictures by clicking on the album link below:

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Sorry, no pictures this time!

Since the start of summer, we haven’t done a lot of work in the basement.  We did get a few things done though…  I cut the rest of the baseboards, and installed the remaining door on the laundry room.  We’ve got a few things left:

• Paint the baseboards and install them
• Patch the crown molding
• Install window frames and trim
• Install door trim on the bathroom and laundry room
• Install a light in the laundry room
• Finish the closet in the bathroom (Shelves and doors)
• Flooring on the stairs
• Trim on the stairs
• Handrail on the stairs
• Paint the wall in the bathroom upstairs and in the stairwell

That’s it!  Once those things are done, the project will be complete!  As you can see, the list is large, but the tasks are small.  I will probably work on these things over the winter, and have a nice big party (?) in the spring!

I’ve got a few more tasks lined up for next year.  We plan to have the tree removed from the front yard, landscaping done to level it out, and new sod or seed planted.  I also plan to move the fence by the garage back about 20 feet to move the cement pad inside the yard, and build a chain link kennel run alongside it.  I also would like to replace the fence on the north side of the yard, but I will have to talk to our neighbours about that one!

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As it turns out, Mia is no longer Mia.  (S)he turned out to have certain qualities that are not really required when sporting such a feminine name as Mia.  So now, although we have recognized that Mia is in fact a male, I am having trouble breaking the habit of calling her (HIM!) Mia.  Her (HIS!) new name is now Monkey, according to Chantale anyways.  HE had a brief stint as a “Sammy”, but that didn’t work out for unknown reasons.  So now, the feline who was formerly known as Mia, and had a brief moment as Sammy, is now formally known as Monkey.

I swear, this cat is going to have an identity crisis… poor thing.

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We have acquired a new cat! Her name is Mia, and she’s quite the cat… she is coloured very much like a Siamese cat, but isn’t a full blown Siamese. She’s very friendly, although her claws do tend to get in the way every now and then. She enjoys spending time with Max, playing with Sasha, and watching the fish!

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It has been a busy several months, and I am sincerely sorry for not updating the site… I know we have thousands of people hanging onto every word… waiting to find out what we’ve accomplished… …ok, maybe not thousands. Dozens? Probably not. Maybe a handful… But either way, I have finally decided to post an update… so here it goes!

We’ve pretty much finished the basement, except for some final touches. we put down laminate flooring and had carpet installed. We laid a subfloor in the bathroom, and then laid vinyl flooring in my workroom, the bathroom, and the laundry room.

We found the vinyl flooring fairly easy to install. To make it easier, we cut it to approximately the right size, and then carefully moved it into place. The final result turned out great!

The bathroom went together fairly painlessly… The corner shower was simple to install, the sink was easy, but the toilet was a bit of a pain. The closet flange installed by the plumber had an outer ring that could spin around the inner flange. Since the flange was set in concrete, we figured it wouldn’t be necessary to affix the outer flange to the concrete. Boy, were we wrong. Upon tightening the toilet down, we heard a loud snapping sound, and lifted the toilet to find that the outer ring had separated from the inner flange. We hammered it back on, and then went to Home Depot to get some concrete screws to hold it in place. Once that was done, all was good!

Aside from all of this, we have assembled my new desk, installed all the recessed lighting, finished off all the electrical, and done most of the trim work. We’ve also installed the suspended ceiling in the laundry room, and installed all of the doors but one. We are so close to complete, that we’ve even moved the TV and some chairs into the basement family room. I am now also using my basement office, having moved all my stuff downstairs.

I know there’s lots of little things left to do, but I’m in no rush to do them, since it’s summer and I need to save some projects for winter!

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So, if you haven’t heard yet, I am now officially done working at Accutrak. I was offered a position with Solvera Solutions here in Regina, and started back on June 4th, 2007! Solvera does consulting work for a variety of IT companies. My current position is a three year contract to SaskPower as a SAP/ABAP Developer. This has been an amazing new learning experience for me, and I look forward to my continued employment with Solvera!

Categories: Random Ramblings
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