Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone!

We're back visiting Tara's step dad and sister right now. It's been stressful (really, I was expecting it to be) but I think Tara and her family are going to be alright, it may just take awhile. We haven't been getting much sleep because Tara's having trouble falling asleep and her step dad wakes up really early and we don't want to leave him alone right now.

We're going to be driving him to Lloydminster on Boxing Day so he can be with his sons (it's like a 15 hour drive, over 1000km). We both think he's going to start getting much better once we get there. It's going to be a long drive (going through the Rockies in winter should be fun) and we're pretty much going to be turning around and coming back as soon as we get there since I have to be at work January 2nd, but I completely think it's the best thing to do. I'm not worried about the drive at all, at least.

Rich and Jamie, thanks for calling. Tara really appreciated it and we're looking forward to seeing you in January. I got an email from Nintendo and my second Wiimote had shipped, so it's probably in our mailbox right now and we'll be getting our new TV pretty much as soon as we get back!

Apparently I've Been Tagged!

I've been hit! So, six (6) things that are odd about me... Hmm, let me see.

1. I am ridiculously anal about formatting source code at work. It drives me batty when code blocks/braces don't line up nicely, so much so that I'll reformat the code so things look all pretty. On the plus side, people don't hate maintaining my code. My old boss used to find it hilarious.
2. I have really good hearing (I can hear our cat creeping up the stairs at night when he's hunting for exposed extremities), but I sometimes have trouble listening to people talking. Like there's too much background noise or something. Not all the time, though.
3. One of my teeth is smaller than the rest and grew in sideways. My dentist thinks I should leave it the way it is. She says it's a good luck charm. I also play with it with my tongue when I'm thinking, kinda like stroking a beard thoughtfully.
4. I'm a really shy person at heart. All through high school I had a hard time making friends because of my inability to talk to people. At my last job I worked from home and started to get quite antisocial. I'd avoid hanging out in large groups and any situation where I might have to talk to someone. Thankfully, I got laid off and I got a job at a huge corporation so I have to talk to people all the time. I still have trouble initiating conversation unless it's with someone I know quite well, but I've gotten much better in the last year and a half.
5. For some reason, one rule that has always stuck with me, all the way from elementary school, is that you shouldn't start multiple sentences in a row with the same word. I can't for the life of me remember when I was taught that, but I'll go out of my way to rework and reword entire paragraphs to avoid that. It makes writing technical briefs at work really fun.
6. I may be mildly OCD. I always brush my teeth the same way in the morning, running through my mental checklist to ensure that I got all the different areas. At the mall, I'll park in the same area so I won't lose my car. I'll take the same way to a place, regardless of whether or not Tara finds a more efficient/quicker way to go. It actually makes me upset when I break those routines.

I've got more stuff, but the requirement was for only 6 things, so that's all you get! It appears that I've run out of people to tag... I'll hold onto the opportunity for awhile until I find an unsuspecting victim.

Oh, and you know that Twisted Sister video down below there? I got the album. They made an entire Christmas album, the whole thing is available to listen to on their site. It's 100% pure awesome.

When It Rains, It Pours

My mother-in-law passed away today. It happened suddenly during a hospital visit. She had been having health problems for quite some time and had been on some heart medication, which is why she was at the hospital today (having some blood tests done). They're not sure what that cause is yet, but apparently she had very thin "watery" blood.

This caps off a great fall for us. We moved at the beginning of September to our townhouse and had about a weeks notice that the move was a go. My mom came over to help and ended up falling down some stairs and hurt her ankle. At the time she thought is was just a sprain, but found out later it was a fracture and got a cast for a month. Shortly after the move, Tara's step-mother passed away due to liver failure. She had been on dialysis for a long time, so this wasn't a huge surprise, but it was still bad news. We made quick arrangements to fly back to Lloydminster to visit Tara's dad and attend the funeral.

Of course, during all this, I was working on the project from hell (aka: Sims 2 Pets PSP) and was under lots of stress at work and Tara had recently started at her new job, so there was stress there as well. Then our place got broken into and our TV got stolen. And then this.

Next year better be good.

Yay For Being Sick

I thought I had managed to avoid it, but I finally succumbed to Tara's cold. Or maybe it was my coworker who's been sick since he got back from Chicago. At any rate, I felt like crap last night and most of today. Thankfully, I have this amazing ability to sleep as much as I need to when I do get sick. So I finally got out of bed at about 6:30pm today, feeling much better, to watch the Canucks game (we won, that's a whopping 3 game winning streak now). At least I'll be able to salvage some of the weekend, assuming I'm feeling better tomorrow... I still have to finish shopping for Christmas!

Last night was Tara's work party, down at Hotel Vancouver. It was pretty fun, although it probably would have been better if we weren't both sick. The people she works with are just a bit different than the people I work with, though. Maybe I'll finally get off my ass and post some pictures. We've got some good ones of Bucky, too. I can't help myself from taking pictures of him, he's a very photogenic cat.

Oh, and my replacement sensor bar for my Wii has shipped, so it should be here on Monday. We still don't have a replacement TV yet, so I still can't play it, but it's one step closer to me feeding my Zelda addiction again.

Getting Close to Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Here's a little Twisted Sister to get the yuletide festivities going!

Vancouver 5-0

So the police stopped by today to check for prints. Looks like the guy was smart enough to wear gloves, but not smart enough to take the power cable for the TV. Anyway, talking to the building manager and apparently there was a rash of car break-ins yesterday to go with our home break-in. Tomorrow we get to do the whole insurance thing, so that should be exciting. Haha, the window they got in through is so "Canadian ghetto" now. We didn't have a piece of wood long enough to keep the window from opening, so we've got a hockey stick in there until we can get to Home Depot and pick up a piece of dowling or something.

No soccer today, either, as the gym we use is all decorated for a school function. As a consolation activity we went to the pub next to the school and drank while watching the end of the Canucks game (they won 5-2, believe it or not). There better be floor hockey on Thursday, dammit! It's funny how quickly you can become dependent on physical activity.

Blogosphere!

I hate that word so much. For a techie guy, I can't stand so many of the tech phrases in use today. They just seem so forced. It actually makes me cringe when people use them. Who makes up these terms, anyway? It sure as hell isn't a programmer, that's for darn tootin'.

So my last project finally shipped: http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/psp/sims2pets. I can't believe it's actually on shelves; I thought it would never be done! So now it's on to my next project, which is as-yet unannounced (not that it'll be a big surprise when it is, though).

And last, but not least, I'd like to give a big "F U" to whomever it was that broke into our house and stole our TV. I can't play my Wii now because of you! However, I must say that I'm puzzled as to why you left the Wii there (component cables, Zelda and all), along with the power cable for the TV and it's remote. And everything else, for that matter.

Well, that's all that I've got for now. Maybe one day I'll work on a catch phrase to sign off with. Yeah, that'd be awesome!