Finally after about 8 weeks of

waiting and reporting I got my ei claim finalized. That was the good news. Bad news being they only gave me 18 weeks and 10 of them have been used up waiting. For the moment though I get those weeks paid out and it means I can get my lodge dues paid next week and we can get Skippy fixed up and pay some bills. I can also have my claim put on hold so if this summer I can recover the rest of those weeks to cover me when and if times are slow. It'll buy me 8 more weeks if I plan it right. For the moment I'm getting full time hours. So I might want to have my claim go doormat.

The other thing is I missed my Doctors appointment   and they don't like that but I re booked. I've got to call the office to confirm that the appointment is for next Thursday not this one. I booked the appointment when I wasn't working and I forgot to write down when my appointment was. Next week Thursday works good because I booked myself off for lodge.

I'm trying to follow next weeks historic Alberta Provincial election May 5th. This year our polling station will be at Sifton school. We got our voter card in the mail yesterday. At the moment the NDP are sitting at 35.1% as the Wildrose are at 30.3 and the PC's are in 3rd place at 24.1% according to 308.com. if the NDP are elected they will form a minority Government. The first time this has happened in over 108 years. I know I wont be voting NDP but Wildrose looks good. It could be real neck and neck.

Yesterday we got to +25 at last and it felt warm but we're back into a cooler trend hitting lows of +10/14's. Anyway, that's all for now.

Enjoying my Sunday afternoon and evening off

here today. That's what I like about working at this place. No Sunday shift and starting at 4pm Monday I get a bit of a weekend. I can also sleep in Monday morning and during weekdays. At least my cold seems to be about 90% on the mend.

I don't know, the Oiler's must have lucky horse shoes up the ass because yesterday with about a 11% chance of winning the NHL draft lottery, they get the #1 pick, again! Arizona and Buffalo had better odds due to their win loss record then the Oiler's at getting the #1 pick. Lucky or what? That's 4 #1 picks in a row. Unprecedented in the history of the NHL draft lottery. So this year the hype is all over Connor McDavid. The hype machine is saying this guy is a generational player like Gretzky or Crosby. Yeah right. It doesn't mean that's who the Oiler's will pick but that would be total folly if they didn't pick him at the June draft. The Connor McDavid sweepstakes is creating a lot of buzz around town this weekend. 

Anne and I were going to go out for a bite to eat today but the lrt is shut down and she has a few errands to go on anyway. Just as well as I wanted to check in on what's going on at Musikmessa 2015 this weekend. Europe's version of NAMM. Lots of great looking gear coming up. Roland is coming out with a modular AIRA type synthesis unit? Wow. So I'm glad we didn't go out today. Even though its +13, it doesn't look very warm out there to me. 

I filed for my ei claim February 26 and as of next Friday it will be almost 8 weeks since my claim has been filed with ei. The problem is (or part of it) with my last place of employment. They claimed on the roe I started April 2011 when I was still full time at iMark at the time working 1-9 Monday to Friday and Saturday. If ei can find any bank deposits from my last place of employment for 2011, good luck. Also, when I was working at Crime Watch about this time last year for 3 days before I got fired (as I submitted that roe to ei as well) The roe said I quit the job, which is a crock. If the claim is approved I'd like to keep the claim going without getting any ei money because I'm on a probationary period at the new job. So if the job doesn't work out I'll have the ei claim to fall back on as I look for something else. 

The downtown arena is progressing nicely. They put a huge adjoining truss between the egress of the winter garden and the arena this morning. Anyway that's all for now.

Sunny skies and decent April

weather accompanied me on my commute. I went to Tim's and bought a coffee and at my stop on 107th & 124th I had a half hour to relax in the shelter reading my book, enjoying my coffee before my shift.

I still have yet to have ei make a decision my claim other way. Now my reports are dated for 2 weeks away. Its now been 5 weeks since I filed for ei. I'm hoping for a decision one way or another this week. I haven't been on ei since before I got married back in 2000 when it was called Unemployment insurance. There's been a lot of changes with ei over the years.

I entered my availability for the month as I'm 4-9:30pm Monday through Friday. I work Saturday's from 10-6pm. After work I caught the bus to Corona station and boarded the train and got out at Bay station to meet Anne. We rode the train to Clareview. She had to make a pit stop to Superstore and I continued on home from there. It was a great day yesterday. No drama, nothing. Anyway that's all for now.