1452 - Where's My Flashlight?

This week was my third at work. I'm starting to feel pretty comfortable, but there are still a couple of things that are gnawing at me. Firstly, I'm not convinced that I'm the employee they think I am - I am waiting for the day that I crash and burn due to inexperience. I know I can get that experience given time - hopefully I can hold out unscathed until then. Secondly, B-SM (my supervisor, or "BOSS" - ooohh scary!) had a chat with an associate and it sounded like he was discussing which of his team members might be suited to a project that the associate had in mind. It seemed for a moment like we were just waiting around at the office for someone to call and order us off of a menu, to be flown in to the patron for as long as they need us, then flown back to await another call. Yes, I have a vivid imagination.

There is a presentation going on sometime Monday. We were all assigned "bugs", or problems, that exist in the software being presented. I assumed mine were due Monday, and I really worked long and hard on Thursday and Friday, only to realize that they were not in fact due until the following Monday. This is fortunate, because I might have spent a good chunk of my weekend behind a keyboard, instead of climbing a mountain.

I saw JW Monday evening. We did something so special and memorable that I don't have a clue what it might've been. I think I can safely assume that we had fun. I spent Tuesday evening home alone, and I do not recall what I did that night either. This is getting scary. Oh yeah, I remember now. I installed a new development tool on my computer so that I could get my new Web site started. This will be the third time developing it. I've had to re-do it twice now because (you guessed it) I keep accidentally erasing the code files. This time I want to write a Web site that can be maintained on either a Windows or Linux machine, just in case I decide to switch to Linux someday. I downloaded a new development platform called "Ruby on Rails". The programming language is called Ruby, and it runs on a framework called Rails. It shows a lot of promise (or so I'm told), but as B-PM says, it will never be commercially viable due to Microsoft's dominance. I still haven't really started, but I'm hoping to get started in the coming months (a testament to the procrastinator in me).

On Wednesday evening I biked over to TA's for no particular reason. I managed to avoid JW walking back from a class held in the vicinity of TA's, though I tried not to. We played a round of Mario Golf, then sat around for a little while. I decided not to go to trivia (a weekly event at a local bar); instead opting to bike home and go to bed.

Thursday was more eventful - I went to JW's, and it turned out that a number of bad things had happened to her that day. We were able to resolve three of them before the evening was out, and she felt much better. The fourth one was unresolvable to our knowledge - she will have to deal with it for several days more. First of all, the oil company let her tank run dry. Unfortunately, due to the other things that'd happened, JW was in no position to push the company to do anything for her. They basically showed up and filled her tank up, as if nothing had happened. They did not give her any free oil or any discount on account of their gross incompetence and the inconvenience that they created. Her house was freezing when I arrived.

Her second problem had to do with that most familiar of villians - taxes. As it turned out, the government had somehow misplaced a revised T4 slip, and so they decided that she owed $600 more in taxes. The final problem was a missing flashlight - it was more a problem because it was needed for going down and turning on the furnace after the oil tank had been filled.

On Friday, JW went with her parents to a local craft show. It featured many of the same artists that we'd seen mere days before at Pier 23. I met her at her place after her parents had gotten to a safe distance, and we watched Christmas Vacation. I watch the movie every year. I've even been known to watch it in the summertime. I was impressed when JW's roommate identified the movie after only hearing one line of dialog.

I spent the night at JW's, and on Saturday I got up to go meet my mother and my aunt at the very same craft show JW had attended the evening prior. I had seen some nice photographs the previous week, and I decided that I was interested in buying one or two afterward. JW emailed the exhibitor and determined that she would indeed be at the show. I arrived at the show and found my mother close to the exhibitor. I went through the photos, only to find that the photo I'd remembered the most was my second favourite. Both were of Keji, a national park not too far from home. It's a great park, but I did not buy the photos because I love the park - I bought them because they were simply breathtaking. Well, I bought one of them - the other is going under the tree as a surprise gift from my grandmother. One was a shot of a dense thicket of evergreen trees - the definition in the branches is spectactular. In front of the trees is a small river and some grass that is more impressive than it sounds. The second shot is across a large lake. There are trees on an island quite far off taking up a large part of the photo, with sunlight making the top three-quarters of the trees look bright orange. There are also tree branches in the extreme foreground, close to the picture taker, with no leaves (it is a winter shot). I am now busy planning my winter getaway to Keji! The exhibitor's work can be viewed here, if you're interested in viewing it. Her name is Marlien Suermondt.

I also bought some fudge for JW at the craft show, before returning to her place. The fudge was as expensive as it was untasty - it had the consistency of play-dough, when JW and I both agree it should be more crumbly. Fudge is one of the very few things that I can make, so I'll have to make some some day as I like it more than the "good" stuff.

JW and I decided to go to Smitty's for breakfast/lunch, to use up some gift certificates that had been taking up space on my bureau for almost a year. She had the colossal omlette, and I had the benedict omlette, with bacon on the side (of course). The place was packed - we waited 10 minutes to get in. It was an interesting mix of college kids and seniors. After the meal, we went to the Hydrostone Market for bread - but no ordinary bread. I bought a stick of sourdough bread that can stand on it's own, literally and figuratively - it has a hard shell, and no toppings are required. We then went back to her place to pick up the directions to Gibraltar Rock, a hiking trail up a small mountain covered with boulders. Of course, we forgot the only item we had stopped for, but we were able to easily find the trail nonetheless.

The trail was very steep and not well-travelled. There were markers on the trees to keep the inexperienced traveller (us) from wandering off. The area was heavily forested, with large granite boulders lying around, mostly covered in moss or grass. There were several streams, and one in particular cascaded down a number of rocks to form a nice waterfall. JW took some great pictures of the area - of course I had forgotten my camera, so I was unable to capture a video of it. The trail was nice because it was difficult enough to challenge us and make us feel like we had achieved something when we reached the top. At the top, we gave in to the children within us by yelling at the top of our lungs into the valley below. JW yelled "the birdies are sleeping" - it could be heard echoing many kilometres away, confounding even the most disciplined of minds. I followed her bout of insanity with, "Pigs in Space", referring of course to The Muppet Show. Much to our amusement, a tiny car on the road far below stopped in a clearing visible to us and beeped its horn. I was momentarily very aware that perhaps hundreds of people might have heard us, but I couldn't help but laugh. We made our way back down the hill (note that we met the waterfall on the way down, not on the way up) and to the car just as darkness fell.

On the way out of the woods, we stopped at a convenience store for refreshments. I paid $1.50 for fudge that would've made the craft show fudge envious of shit. We then drove back to JW's to hang out. I went over to TA's around 8:30 - definately an error in judgment. We sat around and played golf again, while he fell asleep and I chugged a 750mL Jolt cola to keep from doing the same. AD, RD and JP came by and took us to AN & AB's for "games and such". Within 20 minutes, RD and JP were asleep, and the rest of us participated in an extremely immature conversation about miscellaneous items brought to our attention by game cards from the board game Scruples. We had to beat every moment out of the evening; eventually I was driven home at a very early hour.

Today I got up and went golfing with TA. This is the latest in the year we have ever gone. I'm hoping to get out next week, and the weather forecast is fairly good, but I'm not holding my breath. I played quite well with one exception, especially given that I normally do not play well in the late fall or early spring due to the conditions. I hit the ball further than I have in many months, with a few 3-woods going about 250 yds. Unfortunately, my ball came to rest close to a young sapling, and my 3-iron skinned about a foot of bark off of it about half way up. At least I didn't tear it out of the ground, as our playing partner suggested. I felt bad about the tree, but I hit really a great shot. It wasn't too cold, and my hands were not numb as they often are in November - this worked to my advantage!

After golf, I picked up my NES games from Toni; he had been going through them to upgrade his collection before I sell what's left of mine. Then, after a rather deep conversation with JW on MSN, I went to my parents' for dinner. We had tomatoe'd beef AGAIN - apparently somebody in the family (there are three of us) likes it. I don't dislike it I suppose. I did like the mashed potatoes, and I especially liked the crackers and dip we had before dinner, more so because I am not allowing myself crackers at home anymore. We watched golf as always after dinner - Stephen Ames won The Skins Game over stalwart Fred Couples. The lack of real tournaments is already making me crave golf action in 2007. After dinner, we dropped Mum's car off for an inspection, oil change, and to find out why the engine light's been on for the past month. We suspect it might be the exhaust, as the car sounds noisier than normal from the outside.

It is cloudy and cool. I am currently listening to "The Man-Machine" from "The Man-Machine" by Kraftwerk.

Movies watched this week: "Christmas Vacation"