Now under 24 hours

In fact, the festivities have moved up to 2pm tomorrow afternoon.

I'm terribly distracted today. For whatever reason, I've spent this entire week thinking it's a day later than it is. So it feels like a Friday to me. I'm glad it's a half-day tomorrow, and that there'll be drinking in the office.

In the more immediate future, there's sushi and wrasslin' tonight. Can't wait. It's a "crowd brings the weapons" night -- I'm gonna bring a cheese grater. I'm also looking forward to hearing -- and participating in -- the heckling which makes the event great.

Bouncing off the walls here.

Just gotta get through the next 97 hours

I think the anticipation of Christmas vacation is even better than the actual vacation. As of 3pm Friday -- when our office party takes place -- I should be done till next year (momentarily ignoring the very real threat of something popping up).

The last few days have been pretty good. Had a surprise birthday party at J&J's for Leigh on Friday night, which went off without a hitch. Jon had some cask-strength scotch which nearly burned a hole in my stomach. Wine is not a good chaser for that. And beer is certainly not a good chaser for both. But that didn't stop me. Seemed like good times were had by all. I ended up crashing on their couch for the night.

Saturday was pretty lazy -- usually what happens when I'm late out of the gate like that. But that night was pretty good. We headed to C&A's for some Rock Band and drinks (yes, even another belt of scotch!) and we all met Jenn's new beau. He didn't run away from us, so he passed that test. ;)

Sunday was much more productive. I started flattening (that is, unscrewing) some of the furniture I'm replacing, thereby reducing the clutter. And I got a fair bit done on the two ongoing projects -- I think it's still possible to get those done before Christmas. That'll be three out of the four that I'd hoped to get done -- and that's better than "ain't bad."

I also had a successful breadmaker experience last night. The first loaf I made (about 10 months ago) came out like a mountain of cracker. That's when I learned that the wet ingredients have to be heated. What a difference. I'm going to be using that thing a lot more now.

A Stream of Conciousness

• We've just got to be approaching a record for rain over a four-week period. It's been relentless.
  
• It sucks when you have to write a report on a moving target. Write something, the subject of that something has changed, so the report has to change. Aggravating.
  
• It also sucks when you have to design hardware for a moving target. Design a schematic, the interface for that schematic changes, so the design has to change. Also aggravating.
  
• It also really sucks when the deadlines stick for the above two items, in spite of the never-ending changes.
  
• I'm tolerant of this stuff, because somehow, some way, I'm getting hammered this weekend. And also, in less than 200 hours, I'm on a 16 day vacation (unless something fucks with it; I wouldn't rule it out).
  

Dave out.

OK, a bit better this week

So last week, which started so poorly, gradually got better as the tasks at hand started getting completed. The most frustrating thing is that one of the key team members has a key portion of work that needs to be completed before I get this thing done. And he's been most vocal about getting it done before Christmas. I'll gladly point this out if any guff comes my way.

Not a lot of sleep to be had last night, owing to another marathon session of wind and driving rain we got. Around 3am, I got fed up with it and had a couple of glasses of wine to knock me out. I found out that this is a very effective strategy. So I'm a bit groggy today, and need a blog entry to get me in "writing mode."

This past Friday was a hoot. A well-deserved finish for last week. We started out at The Cellar, a very upscale restaurant, for our Christmas dinner (we elected to do this rather than a Kris Kringle). After a meal of swordfish and lobster, a few glasses of Chianti, and a belt of scotch, I was feeling on top of the world, if a bit poorer :)

We went to the Grapevine afterwards for a few more drinks, where we met up with Tim and a crew of his friends. Then on to the Martini Bar for some dancing. As the night wore on, my mood got set to "crazy." I was doing something on the dance floor, when Jenn blurted out "What are you doing?!" At that moment I found my myself in the middle of a very bizarre action, and then just had to leave the floor because I was doubled over laughing my ass off at the situation. Shortly after we called it a night.

Saturday was relaxing. Had some quality workshop time. I started on the forming portion of my clock project, and then started the sanding and staining portion of my entertainment centre. It's becoming more necessary that I sell/otherwise-get-rid-of the furniture I'm replacing. Inquire within.

That night I had Craig and Andrea over for a few drinks and a chat -- it's actually been a while since I hosted a simple function like that, so it was quite nice. After they left, Ginny gave me a shout and we hung out for a few hours longer.

And yesterday was just errands. I put a big dent in my Christmas shopping, so that was good. And now I'm just good and ready for another weekend. 268 hours till Christmas vacation... but who's counting?

I've had better days...

Ugh. It hasn't been going so well lately. Here's a litany:

1. I found out that I've been lifted off a project that may have sent me to Egypt for a business trip. As it (hilariously!) turns out, I managed to be stuck on perhaps the most boring part of the whole thing. FTR, I was lifted off because I'm 150% utilized.
   
   
2. Torrential rain on Saturday prohibited some badly needed yardwork before the fall. So bad were these rains that it actually prohibited said work on Sunday, owing to the degree of saturation.
   
   
3. Said rain simply made heading out to run other errands, like Christmas shopping, prohibitively undesirable.
   
   
4. Said rain also illuminated the fact that, in spite of the heaps of time and money spent on my siding job over the summer, my windows still obstinately persist in leaking.
   
   
5. After a conference call today, I found out that I will still be on the above project long enough to meet a crushing deadline (ie, next week). This probably would not have been required if the client told us two months ago what they wanted. Also, I found out that my brain will still be picked on this project for the coming months. In essence, I get most of the responsibility, and none of the benefits.
   
   
6. The timing of all this is great; I have another project that has a milestone to be achieved before Christmas. And there's another project that I've been able to put on the back burner because our sketchy supplier has been slow getting parts to us. Guess which parts are due in at the end of the week?
   
   

December 19th is my last day of work before the break. Let the hour-by-hour countdown begin.

Anyways, I had to take some time out to vent. Hopefully there won't be more grouchy entries in the near term. But I can't promise anything.

Oh, and look... it's raining... again.