Having a

decent Sunday and in general a nice weekend.

I'm trying to get Anne out of bed so we can get to Swiss Chalet before the 5pm supper rush. If we can get out of here by 3:30pm we should be ok and we can pick our seats. 

In the East its Hamilton Tiger Cats and underway is Esks/Calgary. My 4 fan duel (fd) fantasy football picks are doing ok. My top entry at $1 is 16/100 and my bottom one is 22/100. I'm apparently still in the money game to win $1.80. Since I don't know a lot of whats going on with 22 quarters remaining (?) and my score is 89.9, I remain optimistic. The prize for my 16/100 game is $90! I got to get a better QB next week. If Anne and I can get out of here early, we can get a good booth and I can get a good position to watch some of the Esks/Stamps game and check my fd games in the meantime. I don't mind spending $4/week at this. Its fun.

At the moment we're holding at -6. We got  a -18 Friday but that could change as well. Anyway, that's all for now.

Were having a snow day out there today and its coming down

pretty good. Hopefully we don't get the snow they had in Buffalo the other day. 

I'm thinking about what to get my wife for Christmas. Since she doesn't read this blog or even know it exists, I'm safe. I'd like to get her a digital photo frame and Staples has a nice one for about $50 and I'd like to get her a Tim's card and the iPod Nano. When I get the xbmc system set up hopefully we can reduce our cable down to something more manageable. At least that's the idea, in theory. 

This afternoon I'm putting a Fan Duel (fd) fantasy nfl football team together. Under the salary cap of course. For some reason fd deposited $10 into my fd account and my pp account shows normal. Strange. Anyway, that's all for now.

Thursday we got a lot of rain

while that might not be unusual keep in mind that this is Edmonton, where by this time of year it's usually -23* with a windchill of -28*. Add a foot and a half of snow onto that. At the moment it's overcast patchy snow spots on the ground. It looks more like Spring then winter. Right now its a mild +5. Next weekend we should be down to about -8/-11 wind chill. Even then, that's not bad.

I'm in the office again from 3-9. I could get used to these hours. After tonight I'll have 74 hours on the cheque not including stat pay and ot. From here on in I'll be lucky if I get 3-9 but all we have are evening projects. We got to many people all doing part time and that takes away from those like me that want to work full time. We have people that are just using the job as filler until their regular job comes back. There's about 4 of them waiting till then in the New Year. Can't blame anyone for more $. I would too if I could.

The good news is I have the weekend off and even though its between checks, I'm taking Anne out to Swiss Chalet Sunday and watch some of the game on the big screen and home for the rest. There's no Oiler game on TV other then Saturday.

Hey, hey, Black library has another (in Trade) Space Marine Battles book, "Pandorax." It was released last month and I'll order it before I leave out of here this afternoon. I can cash in on my club points towards it.  

I'm waiting for my schedule in my email from the office for next week. Most likely it's going to be posted on the board when I get there at about 2:45pm. Anyway that's all for now.

It was a good news bad news day

today. I got my Horus Heresy "Scars" and a Eagles book at Audrey's. Also out of that, I'm able to cash in on my book club awards now at $20. I'm saving up for a Warhammer 40K Omnibus book. On my way into work from there, the eather was holding at at about -4. Then the bad news. I got into the office and the supervisor says I'm in at 3pm. I lose 2 more hours. I already lost about 4.5 hours this cheque. At least I'll be able to sleep in a bit and do the project that pays me a bit more. I had another slow start. I got nothing on the good project for 2 hours and 1 completion on the other one in 2 hours and and 2 on the evening project for 3.5 hours. Its hard for me to build momentum like this. And to top off more bad news the Oiler's lost to Vancouver but that was almost a given. My evening commute was quiet and uneventful. Anyway that's all for now.

What I like about taking

a melatonin during the week is, it's not like a sleeping pill that can knock me out and remain in my system hours later. A melatonin has a similar effect but I don't get that "after taste" in my system like a sleeping pill gives.

The Keystone pipeline got the axe by 1 vote but it's only temporary. When the Republicans get in power next year, it'll happen. We still have the Trans Canada pipeline that will go ahead soon as well, I hope. 

There was a hockey poll of the best and the worst NHL coaches and its no surprise that the best NHL coach has recently won a Stanley cup. Our Dallas Eakins came in "last" place, if the poll means anything. Taylor Hall said the poll is stupid and Eakins is a good coach. I agree.

I was working 3 different projects yesterday. Yeesh. The first one is winding down and I spent 1.5 hours on it and got nothing. The other project about 3 hours and the new project for 3 hours.

ETS had scheduling problems yesterday morning and I barely got into the office on time. Anyway, that's all for now.

Now if the rest of winter could hold like this

that'd make me a happy camper. This is winter but not arctic winter. Anything under -10 and no wind chill, I can live with.

I'm up a bit early because of the work crews banging away next door and above. I'll be relieved  when this project is done, or this side of the building. Management has blocked off the buildings main parking lot as they are upgrading it. Its a big inconvenience for people living here and they haven't even began yet.

I'm having my morning coffee trying to wake up. Returning home last night, management here has put notice up saying they are shutting down the plumbing for they day for inspections. I don't know whats going on with this place, first widows, then parking lot and now plumbing. What are they trying to do push people out so the owner can raise the premises and put up new ones like condo towers?

In yesterdays mailbag I received a notice from Alberta Monitoring for my diabetes management saying its well near the end of the fiscal year and I've barely used up any of what they give me for diabetes monitoring. The thing is, I don't test my blood sugar levels everyday now. The most important thing for me diabetes wise is insulin and they wont fund that because it's the star attraction here. Sure its $45/month but I'm on low income as it is and we get help when we need it. The other envelope in my mail was a notice from the feds. They said they owe me money for my cpp. Imagine that, the feds not taking money out but putting money in. Wow. 

It's either today or tomorrow that a Senate vote will be passed on the Keystone pipeline decision. The vote is expected to pass because of the of the majority of Republican voters in the in the Senate. That's good news for Albertan's if it goes through. 

Today, I'm in from 1-9. I'll be relieved when we're doing just an evening shift. I still get 4 7.5 hour days and I can take a evening off once a week and still leaves me with enough hours to pay my bills and a bit left over. Anyway, that's all for now.

Computers are much like

Government, the bigger they get the slower they become

If your thinking about buying a computer for anything other then everyday use fro m Future shop forget it. Their desktop pc's have 2 Ram slots on their motherboards. Get a Mac? Even worse. Try upgrading past a 2Tb and more then 16 Ram and your paying 2-3 grand.

I'm going to be following the results of the Riders/Eskimo dame this afternoon. Game starts at 2:30pm, I figure the 1st quarter will be done by 3pm and that's a good time to take my first break. Then again at 4pm on my half once at the beginning and near the end, and then on my last ten about 5pm, just as its all over to see the finale result. Go Esks!

I decided to get that 1Tb Laptop hard drive and Win 7 I'll get them at Future shop only if they can price match. If they can't then I'll go to Memory express next weekend. Anyway, that's all for now.