Dec 3 - Eating Log

Breakfast - pancakes
snack - nothing?
lunch - leftover pizza and chicken wings
snack - cookies
supper - double big mac and fries
snack - cookies

water - 1 bottle

exercise - nothing

Dec 3 - SQL Study

Well, most of my day was spent in the stark realization that I am not as smart as I thought I was.

As mentioned before, I have to write a Microsoft Certification exam before the end of the year. I started working through the material and did some of the practice questions at the end of the chapter. NOT GOOD! I was barely (if not even) reaching 50%. Since the pass mark is 80%, I am kind of nervous. I still have a couple of weeks, in theory, but hopefully it gets better soon.

Other than that, I did some CGY W/O work, cleaning up some lingering issues.

J sang with his choir at Olympic Park, I bet he was cold!

Picked up the pictures from the photo shop today, I'll get them mailed out this weekend after Beth's last craft show for the year.

Anyway, not much else to talk about...

dec 2 - Eating log

Breakfast - nothing
snack - chocolates
lunch - home made bread
snack - nothing
supper - waffles

water - 1 bottle

exercise - 1 lap with Jake

Dec 2 - Slight change in plans

The day started off pretty good - I got a bunch of work done for my CGY Customer. then I had a talk with Jenn and it turns out that I need to write a SQL exam by the end of the year. No pressure :)

So I finished up most of my work and started to crack open my SQL books - this looks like an interesting exam, but it will be a great starting point for moving out of my niche specialty, Navision. It will be great to use NAV with SQL, but I can also just work in a pure SQL environment with this and other certs.

Dec 1 - Eating log

Breakfast - chocolate chip muffin
snack - nothing
lunch - really bad mushroom/swiss burger
snack - couple of slices of homemade bread
supper - burger
snack - not much

water 2 bottles

exercise - walked the dog.

Dec 1 - Drive time

Well, mixed blessings this morning. Both J and M were home sick, so I drove into the office. Much better, only 30 minutes door to desk!

Got through the team meeting, and tried to work through a CGY Oilfield Services Customer, but I couldn't figure out the problem. I handed it off to Ashok, and eventually, he figured it out and got the customer up and running.

I went back to working on my CGY W/O customer for most of the day and some of the evening, making quite a bit of progress.

I got home in time for Beth to go to the gym, I served supper to the kids, walked Jake and went back to work.

Watched a bit of TV and went to bed.

Darren's christmas wishlist 2008

For those who asked me to put this together. Now all I have to do is remember to tell them where it is :)

I love Christmas. I love family and friends getting together and sharing good times together. I also love presents. It isn't so much the actual present, it is more, the 'how well do people understand what I like, or what do they think I would enjoy'

That being said, Most times, people just give up and get me something I asked for. I know I am hard to buy for, as if I want something, I will just go buy it, so it does make it hard for people to plan :)

So, I am putting a list together to help those people who want a little guidance.

Clothes:
I need stuff that fits and I can wear to work.

Books (non-gaming): I like books :)

The Power of Myth
Anathem
Watching the Watchmen: The Definitive Companion to the Ultimate Graphic Novel
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Volume 3: Wolves at the Gate

Movies:
Robot Chicken: Season Three
Band of Brothers (Widescreen, 6 Discs)

The Unit: Season 3

Board Games:
Commands & Colors: Ancients (and any of the expansions)
Kingsburg
Saint Petersburg Expansion
Pitchcar Extension #1
Pitchcar Extension #2
Formula D
Ghost Stories


Roleplaying Stuff
Trail of Cthulhu
Houses of the Blooded
Things We Think About Games
Tour de Lovecraft: The Tales
Game Night
Burning Wheel: Magic Burner
Play Unsafe [Print+PDF] [Preorder]

Other Geeky Stuff
The Bag of Holding Messenger Bag
You Are Here
Obey gravity. It's the law!
I Recycle
Last chance! The official uniform of intergalactic travelers. ">42 Work Shirt
Geek Work Shirt
Power Golf Shirt
Despair, Inc. 2009 Custom Calendar
Star Wars Galactic Heroes Stocking Suffers

Nov 30 - Eating Log

Breakfast - 1 slice of banana bread
snack - nothing
lunch - bacon mushroom melt
snack - a couple of cookies
supper - 2 burgers and fries
snack - nothing

water - 2 bottles

exercise 1 loop with the dog around the block

Nov 30 - sleeping the day away

Got up with R, with promises from Beth that I could go back to bed when she got up. Turns out she 'forgot' that we had to go out to Walmart and such before that could happen. There were also mentions of Timmy's that never materialized either. So that being said, without getting breakfast and having a late lunch, I was a bear! By the time we got home, I don't think anyone in the van was actually talking to me :(

So, when we got home, I unloaded, grabbed my lunch and went to my room. Watched a couple of minutes of TV and took a nap.

Woke up in time to cook supper! I was in a bit better mood, but of course, now Beth isn't. God I love Yin/Yang! Cooked supper, moved my spare desktop up to the kitchen, to see if it would work better than Beth's $50 laptop. So far so good.

Took Jake for a walk, updated blog and went to bed.

Nov 29 - Eating Log

Breakfast - bagel and O.J
snack - nothing
lunch - teen burger and fries
snack - maple cookies
supper - pizza and chickenwings
snack - brownies

water - 1 bottle

exercise - nothing

Nov 29 - Saturday chaos, and gaming

Started off, headed to the butcher to pick up a freezer pack. We then picked up the pictures Beth had printed off of the family shots for various destinations as Christmas Gifts. She had to cancell the 8X10's as they cut off the kids heads in them.

Too M to Ballet and we headed to Deerfoot for lunch. Made a quick turnaround and headed back to pick up M and I made my way to John's to pick up Battle Cry, a great C&C game from AH

We went home after that to let Beth paint, while I tried to organize my games on the shelf. That too most of the afternoon, and I guess I spent too much time focussing on that instead of focussing on the kids. They got pretty rowdy and I eventually lost my cool :(


Cooked some supper up for everyone and then Drew, Al (who brought my A&A games I found online) and Bruce showed up early for Game night. We chatted for a while then went downstairs to play our second round of Conquest of the Empire.

The game was pretty good, I still think that I stabbed myself in the foot more than once, but I think that a couple more games will help with that, but I think it will be a while before CotE hits the table again.

Scheduled Dominion for next week, so I guess I will have to unpack it and read the rules :)

Cleaned up, updated 2 days worth of blogs and went to bed.

Nov 28 - eating log

Breakfast - muffin and diet sprite
snack - nothing
lunch - bacon cheeseburger & fries
snack - nothing
supper - quarter pounder and fries
snack - nothing

water - 1/2 bottle?

exercise - nothing really :(

Nov 28 - TGIF and TBIB

Thank God it's Friday, Too Bad I'm Busy.

I headed into the office first thing, caught a ride to the 301, then met up with Ashok at the Westwinds LRT station. It was a very busy day for me, working primarily on the CGY W/O customer, and fielding emails.

Lunch in the cafeteria wasn't too bad, Brock showed up and hung out for the afternoon, while I kept working on CGY stuff.

Brock gave me a ride home, then I got ready to go out for the evening.

Started by heading to Derek's to pick up a bunch of games. Owned up to Beth where the money came from, we decided that I need to slow down a bit, and I know she's right, doesnt mean I have to like it:)

After that, we headed to IKEA, picked up some stuff, none of which we had planned on (of course), then picked up some groceries at the Superstore.

Got home, unloaded, took Sasha the sitter home, and went to bed.

Nov 27 - eating log

Breakfast - Bacon and cheese sandwich
snack - trail mix
lunch - corned beaf on rye
snack - reeses peanut butter cups
supper - Hamburger helper
snack - cinnamon bun

water - 2 bottles

exercise - 30 minutes walk with dog.

Nov 27 - A pretty busy day

Well. The day began with my CGY W/O Customer and ended with my CGY W/O Customer.
I don't think I did anything else today on the work front.

Wow! I really wish I had more to add for the day, but I worked, I took and picked up the kids for school, ate some and finished the day up with Beth going to the gym and my getting the kids some Hamburger helper.

After supper, I picked up the picture disk from our photographer, and Beth and I looked at the great pics.

Went for a walk, updated the blog and went to bed.

Nov 26 - Eating Log

Breakfast - cereal
snack - trail mix
lunch - Thai chicken (spicy)
snack - chocolate cookies (too many)
supper - Chicken McNuggets
snack -nothing

water - 1 bottle

exercise - 30 min on bike

Nov 26 - Middle of the week, beginning of the Conflict?

Wed. Well, it started off quiet, I'll say that. Beth is volunteering in M's class this morning, so R is going to be home with me. No biggie - I can work at the kitchen table while he watches DVD's and plays with his trains. The wireless kept kicking in and out, but I got a fair amount done in the morning, working on W/O stuff.

After lunch I retreated to my office and kept on working. Gina was bringing the kids home, so I worked up to supper and then got ready to play Conflict of Heroes with Bruce.

I have to say, I think this is a great game, so far. Havent really gotten in to deeply, but the ruleset seems pretty easy to follow. we played the introductory scenario (5 infantry troops on each side) three times in 3 hours. Next week, I suspect the game will get a little longer, but should be interesting. Thanks Bruce for the games.

After Bruce left, I cleaned up a bit and went to bed.

Nov 25 - Sailing the Seas of uncertainty

The day started off frustrating. Well, it didnt start off that way, I guess. I got up, rode the exercise bike, had breakfast and drove the kiddos to school.

When I was driving home, intent on going into the office. Then the frustration began. Brock calls to inform me that one of our CGY Customers is quite upset. This frustrated me, as I hadn't heard from this customer in almost a month, and I was fairly certain that they were happy. Brock didnt have a lot of details, so I decided to look into my logs to see exactly what I had done for them last. I noticed that the documentation was out of date, and decided to get that cleaned up ASAP.

I then talked wiht Linda, and found out that there was a lot more going on behind the scenes at this customer. She told me not to worry, that she was just trying to get a sense of what the history was.

After that, I felt a little better, I still want to help this customer, but theyhave to be able to help themselves first.

I cleaned up a build for my CGY W/O customer and tried to get myself organized.

Took a quick look at Navision's Company Notes feature, but I havn't got that working, yet.

End of the day, I looked after the kids, while Beth went to the gym, then did a bit of tinkering around and watched some TV.

Got an interesting deal on some boardgames from Derek, 27 games (of various weights and value) for $250. I think I am going to take him up on this, as even though about half of the games, I already own, I can post these as trade bait or take them to the auction in March.

After all of this, I should have went for a walk, but instead curled up, watched some more TV and went to bed.


and informs

Nov 24 - eating log

Breakfast - nothing
snack - soda
lunch - beef dip and baked fries
snack - nothing
supper - steak, rice and a smokie
snack - a couple of cookies

water - 1 bottle

exercise - going up and down the stairs 6 times and hiking to and from the transit.

Nov 24 - New Office

Today we moved into the New Bell Campus. This place is really nice. Cafeteria, gymnasium, outdoor activities, and a really open layout that looks really nice.

The only drawback is the trip to and from. On the transit it takes me a little over an hour to get to work. Lots of time to ponder life's mysteries and a good hike at the end to get the blood going :)

Got in, unpacked, did a quick team meeting, then took a look around the floor to find the bathrooms and printers. Our mighty leader Allan, gave a nice presentation, bringing us all up to speed on the building.

Worked on CGY W/O's and then had lunch in the cafeteria. Not too bad, but I am sure they will get more efficient as they learn the ropes here.

After lunch, had a tour of the building with Derek, one of the project leaders. Really nice.

Did some more CGY, then hiked over to the train, went downtown, caught the bus home.

BBQ'ed some ribs and steak for supper, fed the kids while Beth went to the gym and then tinkered on the computer for a few minutes, catching up on some emails.

Watched some TV and went to bed.

Nov 23 - Eating Log

Breakfast - Bagel and a Breakfast Sandwich
Snack - nothing
lunch - McDonalds
snack - nothing
supper- Wendy's
snack - nothing

water - 1 bottle

exercise - I guess running all over creation doesn't count, eh?

Nov 23 - A LOOOOOOONg day

Got up, still hurt from head to toe. Grabbed a shower, got dressed, and took J & M to church. Church was pretty normal, didn't have to usher, which was nice and J was Altar Serving.

Got Home, had to pick up some Thomas Engines for R, picked those up and we headed out for a fun filled day.....

yeah, right.

Family Pictures was actually not too bad, I think we have good shots of everyone.
Picked up some comics from a guy online.
Stopped at Revolutions and bought Dominion and 'Hey that's my Fish!'
Got Groceries
Took M to a Birthday Party
Unloaded the Groceries
Picked M up from Birthday Party
Took a drive to see new office location.
Picked up Supper
Went home, ate supper, watched some TV

Went to Bed.

Nov 22 Eating Log

Almost embarassed by this:
Breakfast - bottle of pop and 2 Snickers Bars
Snack - nothing
Lunch - Nothing
Snack - bunch of sweets from the craft fair tables
supper - 1/2 of Koryo.
snack - some trail mix

water - 1 bottle

exercise - running around loading and unloading the crafts?

Nov 22 - Crafting and Gaming

So. Early morning start with packing up the van with all of Beth's Crafts. The kids are staying with a friend and we are off to the show!!!

The morning is incredibly slow - slow enough that I hopped over to Toys 'R' Us and picked up a bunch of Christmas Stuff for the Kids and a bunch of games for the house (Chess, Sorry Sliders, Labryinth, Jenga, Blokus 3D and some Heroscape minis)

Came back, it was still slow, but it really picked up after lunch, by the end of the show, pretty good overall.

Packed up, went home, unloaded (this is really the FUN part, right?) and then went to Deerfoot to pick up some supper. While there, I picked up a couple of Graphic Novels, a book for Robbie, and some WebKinz for the rest of the tribe.

Came home, the guys were already here, setting up Conquest of the Empire. This looks like a really good game, but I was so bloody tired, that I really don't remember much, other than figuring out who was not in my alliance and attacking them. Didn't finish the whole game, so I decided that next weekend, we would play this again to get a better feel for the game.

By the time I went to bed, I was just sore from head to toe. Popped some painkillers and went to bed.

Nov 20 - eating log

Breakfast - english muffin
snack - nothing
lunch - burger and fries, pop
snack - sugar cookies
supper - chicken mcnuggets, fries, pop
snack - nothing

water - 1 bottle

exercise - nothing :(

Nov 20 - Office Packing

Went in to the BellTower for the last time today, finished packing and helped Brock pack up as well.

Worked on CGY Work Order project and did some minor cleanup. Pretty quiet day, thank god, as I can feel a migraine coming on.

Got Home, Beth wasn't feeling well either, she didnt go to the gym, but had to go to School Council, so she didnt get home until 9:30pm or so. I tried reading and ended up listening to my ipod and lying down instead.

Very quiet day.

Eating Log - Nov 19

Really bad day for the 'diet'

breakfast - sausage sandwich
snack - reeses peanut butter cups
lunch - Wendy's Burger (x2), fries and pop
snack - jelly beans
supper - burger and fries
snack - sugar cookies


water - 1 bottle? maybe?

exercise - shovelled the walk and walked the dog around the block.

Nov 19 - in the office / in the church

Went into the office today to get ready for our move to the new Bell Campus in Westwinds. I am of mixed opinions of this move. On one hand, it will be nice to be integrated into the rest of the bell team, we will be sitting with the Hosted Environment, PS&I and Wireless teams, which will be good, but on the other hand, it adds 30 minutes to my commute, as I have to travel downtown and then take a train to get to the office.

Alternatively I could take the van, sometimes, but the City has just plopped a $3/day fee on park 'n ride lots, and since I won't make it to the office until 9, I may not beable to get a spot in the 'first come, first served' campus parking.

Oh well, such is life. Work wise - I worked on CGY customer stuff for most of the day, nothing mind-blowing, but it kept me busy.

Got home, had supper and then took J to is first reconciliation service at the church. It was really nice. Vicki got him a nice necklace, while his cheap parents got him nothing :(
That took about an hour, then we went home (Sherri watched over M & R as Beth had sign class)

Didn't too to much, read a new book for a bit, then walked the dog and went to bed.

Nov 18 - eating log

Breakfast - 2 sausage breakfast sandwiches
snack - chocolates and chips
lunch - steak and cheese sandwich
snack - 4 cookies
supper - porkchop/applesause, rice and brussel sprouts
snack - 2 cookies

water - 1 bottle

exercise - 30 minutes on the bike, 1 loop around the walking trail with Jake.

Nov 18 - Work and a movie, sounds good to me

Tuesday started off pretty normal.

Got up, rode the exercise bike for 30 minutes, grabbed some breakfast and took kids to school.

Came home - jumped into CGY W/O's for most of the day. MC was doing some presentations to staff and found a couple of issues that I cleared up.

Helped Gina put out signs for the church craft show around the neighborhood. Lots of jumping in and out of the van with big signs. Can't beat it :)

Picked up the kids, came home, did some more work.

Chatted with Wendy online, she is still under the weather, lots of tests and still working full time. Sounds like she is doing well work wise, but not so much on the health side.

Beth went to the gym and J and I watched the Star Wars Clone Wars animated movie. Pretty good for what it was meant to be. Definitely targetting a younger audience, which is a good thing.

J went to bed, I cleaned up some emails and went to bed.

Eating Log - Nov 17

Breakfast - 2 breakfast sausage sandwiches (home made)
snack - 2 cookies
lunch - leftover hor d'ourves
snack - 2 cookies
supper - corned beef on rye
snack - nothing.

water - 1 bottle (man I gotta work on this)

exercise - 15 minutes on the bike, 1 loop around the block with Jake.

Nov 17 - Monday Iceday

Today was a consistently busy day today.

Woke up and began to workout on the bike. Of course, I didn't plan on R trying to take a ride with me. 15 minutes with R riding on with me just about killed me.

After that, took the kids to school and got to work.

Worked on an Excel export for a CGY construction company, then back to my usual CGY W/O customer. In the midst, I fixed some setup issues for a RD company that had some SQL Security questions.

That took most of the day, then I worked on refreshing one of our internal systems for some customer training.

Beth went to the gym, I cooked supper, then I caught some TV.

Weird thing happened tonight. Beth was down painting and the doorbell rang. two ladies were walking by and found Beth's wallet lying on the sidewalk... They must have found her address in it and they brought it to the door. I kinda felt bad, I took the wallet and just said 'thanks'. At the time I thought they must have been some friends from the gym, but it turns out no, I am just a rude jerk who says thanks and closes the door. By the time Beth got to the door, they had gone on. Lucky thing for Beth, that would have been disasterous if some kids had found it instead.

Went for my walk, came home and went to bed.

Eating Log - Nov 16

Breakfast - Tim horton's Bagel
Snack - two doughnuts
Lunch - Burger/Fries & Shake from Fatburger
Snack- nothing
supper - Bunch of hors d'ourves (baked)
Snack - nothing

water - 2 bottles

Exercise - walked the dog, one loop around.

Nov 16 - Sunday runarounds

I'd like to say that this was a memorable day, but it is only memorable in the fact that I really didn't do anything that memorable.

I got up around 6am when Robbie decided it was time to get up. Took him to the bathroom, then he climbed into our bed.

That's when I found that Beth wasn't in bed. Turns out that she couldn't sleep and got up around 5am to paint. Robbie hung out with me until 7am, then I sent him down to play with mommie. I went back to bed until 8:30.

Got up and found out that it snowed. It snowed all over the van seat that I left on the Deck, and covered the ground in white fluffy crap. I spent the next half hour cleaning off the sidewalk and getting the van ready for grocery shopping.

Got the groceries, picked up some stuff at Michaels for Beth.
Went home, unloaded the groceries and waited for the sitter to show up, so Beth and I could make a run to Ikea.

We picked up a bunch of chairs for the game room on the way, and I picked up a bunch of stuff at Ikea for Beth's craft show. Stopped into a new burger joint called Fatburger. probably shouldnt have, but HOLY CRAP, this place has AWESOME food! Burgers, Fries and shakes, just cannot go wrong. The only problem is that it is all the way down at Deerfoot meadows :(

Got home, took Sasha home, went down to Rev (originally to pick up Dominion, but ended up getting Carcasone the City and Chateau Roquefort) and back home again.

Unloaded the chairs, cleaned them up, got them downstairs and cooked up some supper.

Finished supper, helped Beth out with some craft prep, and took Jake for a walk. Did some laundry and went to bed.

GodStorm - A risky game

Well, had the guys over tonight, and after much discussion we broke out Doug's copy of Risk GodStorm. A couple of us had played it before, but it was a new one for me. A lot like Risk 2210AD, which I had played though.

Its interesting, it takes a while for me to forget why Risk is such a frustrating game and I have to sit down and play it again.

Doug got wiped out very early, and it looked like I was going to get nailed shortly thereafter. Drew looked good really early, then petered out nearer to the end. Bruce and Steve would probably have battled it out for the win, but I like to think I had a little chance after driving a huge force through Steve and Drews God Forces.

The game took a lot longer than I would have thought, as we had to cut it short due to time.

A great night though is just having friends over and hanging out, so thanks for that.

Eating Diary - Nov 15

Breakfast - toast
Snack - nothing
Lunch - McChicken, 2 cheeseburgers and Fries
Snack - nothing
supper - Koryo combo
Snack- nothing

water - <1 bottle

exercise - nothing

Nov 15 - Crafting and Gaming

Day two of Beth's Craft Show- - so she was gone from 9:30 - 4 or so. She had a good day, but a long one. Drew came over around 2:30 so that I could help Beth take down her display.

Our day at home was pretty uneventful. M had ballet, so while she was there, I took J and R to Deerfoot for Orange Julius. Picked up a Manga for J to keep him occupied.

Afternoon was pretty quiet as well, Kids watched a movie, while I tried to keep the house organized.

Went and picked up Koryo for supper before game night.

Eating Log - Nov 14

Breakfast - Toast and Tea
Snack - cookies
lunch - Subway Club
snack - cookies
supper - toast
snack - nothing

exercise - 30 minutes on the bike

Nov 14 - More of the same :(

This was a very weird day. I felt like I was running all over the place, while still juggling work and home. I suspect I will have to put some time in on the weekend, based on how little I accomplished today.


Beth's first craft show of the 2008 season starts tonight. Got her float setup, packed the van and she took off as soon as I got back from school with the kids. I worked at the kitchen table for a couple of hours, just trying to get something done.


Going to be a long night.

I actually saved off the draft at that point and didn't get back until later.
Boy was I right. I ended up working until about 8pm, but I got a lot of the stuff done that I wanted to. the kids watched A night at the Museum in the living room, while I worked at the kitchen table.

I also got some laundry done and such.

Beth had a great night at her show, she came home after 9pm, tired but happy.

We went to bed early, so that we could be ready for Saturday.

Eating log - Nov 13

breakfast - Cereal
Snack - 6 cookies
lunch - toast
snack - 4 mini chocolate bars
supper - chicken and fries
snack - nothing

Water - 2 bottles

exercise - 30 minutes on bike, helped pack Beth's Craft Show inventory

Nov 13 - All (very) quiet on the Western Front

Work wise - I spent some time on CGY W/O's, but primarily worked through some of my SSAS CBT.

Home wise - got Beth's inventory Price, Logged, Wrapped and packed for her craft show tomorrow.

Very boring day. Long, but boring.

Eating Diary - Nov 12

Breakfast - Cereal
Snack - 6 cookies and handful of pretzel thingys
Lunch - Chicken and Rice bowl
Snack - nothing
Supper - Salmon and Rice
Snack - 6 cookies

Water - 3 bottles

Exercise - 30 minutes on Exercise Bike, one loop around the block with the Dog.

Hannibal - Third and final (for now) try

Bruce came over tonight and we broke out Hannibal for another go. This time, I played the Carthaginians. We played part of the first year, and I was already decimated so we reset the board and started again, this time, with me paying more attention to some minor details.

This flopped the other way, I could do no wrong. I had the Romans completely on the ropes by year 4, almost every battle, he lost his entire army! I had almost complete control of Italy, and Rome was working on overtaking Spain.

We eventually called it a night, it seems like an awesome game, but too heavily dependant on luck of the draw and such. Not one game seemed close, they were always slaughters for one side or the other.

Thanks Bruce for the games.

Nov 12 - Time to study? Surely you jest!

Well, first day back after a four-day-weekend. Didn' have much scheduled for this week, which is not a bad thing, really. Got a build out to my favourite CGY customer, then tried to get some SSAS studying in. By the end of the day, I almost got 2 whole hours in of Video study. Oh Well.

Did try to get ourselves organized for the weekend, don't think we really made any decisions.

Not much else to talk about for the day, got home, had some supper and then played Scrabble Junior with M before Bruce showed up and M went to bed.

Beth didn't go to sign class tonight, her ride was not feeling well, and Beth still isn't 100%

Got an interesting call about 8pm though, from a friend of ours. It turns out that they bought a new vehicle and was going to give us their old van. Only has a little thing wrong with a leak in the anti-freeze, but other than that, is in good running order. I have no idea about year, make or anything else, but the price is right.

Beth is going to call State Farm tomorrow and see what it will cost us to insure it, that will be the real tell.

Eating Diary - Nov 11

Breakfast - Apple Crisp (all gone now, not sure what I am going to do tomorrow :))
Snack - 2 cookies
Lunch - Grilled chick Sandwich and Caesar Salad
Snack - 6 mini-chocolates (doh!!)
Supper - Pulled Pork Sandwich
Snack - Nothing

Water - 2 Bottles

Exercise - 1 loop around the block, moved furniture in Master Bedroom.

Nov 11 - Forgot to remember :(

Well, today, I put the exercise bike in the bedroom. Part of my hopeful plan to stop looking like a beached walrus. (note from wife- I love you the way you are!) Had to move the Wardrobe, Dresser and parts of the Desktop, but it looks pretty good.

I also put up some LACK shelves for Beth's Knick-Knacks over the bed, so the room looks really good.

That took most of the day for me.

Beth actually got some painting in today, but she had to stop around supper, she looked pretty beat.

Grammie Anne brought over Christmas clothes for J and R, and took M out shopping for her dress. They got home just in time for bath and bed.

After supper, J and I played some games. Started off with Numbers League, Stratego - Transformers and Mag-Blast. He did really well, once he settled down and paid attention. I am just going to keep throwing games his way and see what sticks.

Went for my walk and made sure that the bike was ready for morning.

Eating Diary Nov 10

Breakfast - Apple Crisp (yeah, great start :)), Cup of Tea.
Snack - Nothing
Lunch - Leftover Koryo (Rice, chicken, broccoli)
Snack - 2 cookies
Supper - too much. 2 big burgers, shrimp, fries.
Snack - nothing?
Water - 4 glasses

Exercise - 1 loop around block 45 minutes.

Nov 10 - Darren's Vacation Day 1 / Beth Sick Day 2

Day started off early, I didnt sleep well again last night - decided to go for a walk before bed to see if that helps. Hell it couldnt hurt the waistline :)

I actually spent a couple of hours in the morning working!!! Was not thrilled by this, but it needed to be done.

Lunch was leftovers from Koryo, while the kids had something, I think Beth fed them anyway.

She actually had her dayhome open and the kids were open. Only Brodie, Connor and Barrett (he went home at noon), but that was enough, since Beth was still under the weather.

I dragged all of the kids over to the park for an hour or so, then left them in the backyard for another hour, so that Beth could get some sleep. Sherrie came and picked up her kids @ 3, so I finally got a bit of a break then.

Beth got up, we had left over burgers and fries for supper, and then she went back to bed.

I played games with M and J. Started off with Monster's Inc Memory Game with both of the kids. M had to go to bed, so J and I broke out Star Wars Saga Edition Monoopoly, Tier au Tauf, Knuckling Knights and Jungle Treasure. It was a lot of fun and I hope to do this again.

I actually did get out for a walk, man am I out of shape!! took me 45 minutes to walk my usual 30 minute loop.

Grabbed a shower and headed to bed. (after getting caught up on the blog :))

Nov 9 - Beth Sick Day 1

Well, This is the day that all plans go out the window.

I get up early to feed the kids, everyone got up a little later than expected though.
Beth looked like crap. I mean, whiter than a Clan Member.

For the morning, I kept the kids out of her hair until she woke up.

Went and got a couple of groceries and picked up some Timmies for lunch.

Ate lunch while the kids played at the park.

Got home, fed the kids some lunch, then Beth tried to paint for a while and I tried to get some work done on the computer. Didn't really happen (my stuff anyway).

I cooked up some supper (Burgers, steak and chicken on the Grill, Fries in the oven).

Fed the kids, put them to bed, Beth went to bed and I watched TV.

Nov 8 - Lots of Games

Started off with a couple games of Mr. Jack with Bruce. This is a simple game with a lot of depth. I could grow to like this!

Al and Steve showed up as soon as the board was set up, so they set up a game of Neuroshima Hex!

We finished both our games before Al and Steve, so we played another round of En Garde! I like this little filler.

Then we got to the game of the day - Samurai. Havent played four player in a long time, and I still think this is a better three-player game, but it was a lot of fun. Bruce won this game, as expected, but ironically all the rest of us, didnt really score any points - The scoring mechanism is really weird.

After we grabbed some supper, Drew and Doug showed up and we played Pathfinder. We are still in the Graul house section of Hook Mountain Massacre, and we really didnt get very far! Lots of side discussions and such, but you know what? I think we all had fun.

Finished off the battle in the Trap-makers room with the Tendriculos. This room is f'n nasty, with a tonne of traps. The group finally dealt with this by usin the traps against the plant monster and Chaine toasted the ogre.

Left the Trap room, cleared a bunch of junk out of the junk room to get at the Temple Doors. These locks are nasty, but between Daigo's Lock Skill and a key that they found on Mammy Graul, they found the 'Chest Room' / Altar. They paused for a couple of seconds, which gave Biggun (nasty spider) a chance to sneak down from behind the group and snatch up Bael. This was a straightforward beatdown, poison vs damage. I put a lot of hurt on the players, but they pulled through.

Of course, the altar doors are open, and Mammy and her 'boys' are coming up RIGHT NOW!!!!

Saturday - House cleaning

Well. Got up early, made breakfast for J, M and R (Pancakes and toast).

Beth and M went to the gym before M's Dance Class.

While they were gone, I vacuumed, and put up plastic on the Living room and Master Bedroom windows. A lot of work, but I am glad it got done.

Pretty quick morning, but the fun is for the afternoon!

Hannibal disaster, En Guarde you poiseless beast!

Started off the night with a game of Hannibal. I played the Romans and Bruce played the Carthaginians. I started off aggressively, bringing in Longius from the south via the sea to attack Hannibal. It was an unmitigated disaster!!! I think we came into the battle with 8CUs each and I ended up with 2 and Bruce had 7. And that was the best battle I had all night. I tried at least 6 times to take on Hannibal and slow the onslaught (which I had read was the best way for the Romans to win).

In retrospect, the Romans need to play a lot more cautious, even, perish the thought, withdrawing sometimes. Screw Roman honor! Build up some troops, spread out the Generals and pick my fights.

I also need to figure out how to take advantage of using the PC chips, Bruce was constantly taking over my provinces, but I never seemed to have the time. I ened up losing most of Italy before I just conceded.

We have decided that next Wednesday, I will play the Cartheginians and see if I get a better handle on the game.

After that, I needed something light. We pulled out a new-to-us game, En Guarde! A quick and fun card game where you play swashbucklers!! I really enjoyed this, and it should be interesting with more than 2 players. Beware the Pistol!!! and keep your Poise! It was very stylistic and a lot of Princess Bride quotes were flying! We played 3 full games I think and had a lot of fun.

Thanks Bruce.

Friday - HUAWS - Hurry Up And Wait Syndrome

Friday - Wow this has been a weird week. I go from busy to bored to busy in the space of an hour.

Started off trying to help Mark with a VCR Customer. Ended up not being able to do much, as we were testing in a AJM database and the issue was evidently occurring in a clean database. Waiting for a customer backup to debug.

Also had a lot of conversations with Mike around minor changes to the Work Order Processes.

Did some studying - found some great videos at isvsolutions.com on SQL 2008. But I still need to get back to SSAS studying. Hopefully Monday or Tuesday, when I am off.

Helped Beth put together her inventory for the craft show. Took a bit longer than I had planned, but it should be worth it.

Took the kids to school, M is healthy enough to go today!! Had a chat with J&M's teacher (weird, eh. M has Mrs. whitehead in the morning and J has her in the afternoon). Both J & M are doing quite well, J just scored 97% on a math test, that we didn't even hear about!

Had to pick up Kaylee early as she wasn't feeling well, so I made two trips to the school in the afternoon.

Had McDonalds for supper, didn't feel well afterwards, (gee I wonder why???).

Beth and J had reconciliation class at the church, last class!!

Bruce showed up after supper and we played some games (more later).

Thursday - So...What did I do today? Good Question.

oh yeah. I wrote a really cool C/Side -> SQL conversion document. I pulled info from a bunch of different sources and organized it in a manner that should be useful for all of our prospective customers.

Ironically, that took most of yesterday and today to put together a 14-page document.

Inbetweenst that, I fielded phone calls and helped out where I could.

Home-wise - M was still out of school with a fever, but I am sure she will be back tomorrow.
R and I watched a bunch of thomas the Tank Engine at supper, he knows all of the engines by heart now!
J bailed on choir at lunch today, so that he could play in the snow. beth was really pissed and I think he might actually 'get it' this time.

I had to drive to Al's tonight to pick up the seats for his old van. At the same time I traded an exercycle for a projector. I am hoping that I can get some use out of it in our Games.

Did a bit more work after supper for Mark in VCR. A couple of very wierd issues, but I am sure we will get them worked out.

Beth went to bootcamp, sounded like she had a good time, then she painted until I came down and turned out the lights on her (usual routine - I go down at 9 and close everything down. Otherwise, she would be there until she falls asleep in her chair :))

Didnt watch too much TV - My poor PVR is getting very full :)

Wednesday - quiet day, wierd night.

Well, today was 'take J to the office day'. he had a dr. appointment downtown, so I took him in with me, to save Beth from having to drag all of the day-home-kids around the Core.

As usual, he was awesome. I think it has to do with the fact that he gets to play videogames most of the day :)

Work-wise - I documented most of the stuff I wanted to send out for SQL conversions. Just need to scan some pics and template it properly.

Took J to the Dr, then came back and worked through some emails. All in all, pretty mild day (I knew that this would bite me in the butt)

So, I bail on Bruce for game night, I just wanted to veg for the night, I was pretty baked.

Then I get an email from a VCR customer, they couldn't get into their system after loading a build. A lot of wierdness here, the builds were for a 4.0 environment, but the customer had been updated to 5.0 and therefore the CU1 blew up on a table that no longer existed. It took me a little while to find it as none of the objects actually existed in the DEV environment. I think I have it fixed, but I would like to see how this got to the stage it got to.

Anyway, got that mess cleaned up, caught a bit of TV and crashed.

ttfn. D

Tuesday - A nice quiet day at the home office

Sometimes it is really hard to document exactly what I did during my day...

I got up, took kids to school and went to work.

Started off updating our internal system with some updates to the Customer Sysstems addon I made earlier this year. Uploaded this to our test environment for Linda to review.

Next, I moved on to my CGY customer and continued working on their Work Order process. Just a couple more things to clear up and that should be done (yeah, right!)

M had a playdate after school, so Beth didnt have to pick her up, I would get her when I picked up J and Kaylee after they got out of school. (Boy, is the house quiet when M isn't home ;))

Spent some time on the phone with Brock, working out a plan of attack for SQL conversions. Really didnt get much decided, I will write up what I think we need, and hopefully he will clean it up.

Picked up J, M and Kaylee from school, went home and finsihed up a couple of things before Beth went to the gym.

Fed everyone supper, put R and M to bed, J went off to build LEGO. I put plastic up on some of the windows. I ran out before I could do the master bedroom and teh Big window in the front is only half-done :(

After Beth got home, I had to go pick up some shelves from a lady nearby - and of course it started to snow. Yea!!! First Snow of the year. OK, that's enough, I want summer back.

I tried to work through some SSAS training (Man I cannot get into this course, I need to really get passed the intro stuff soon, or my head will explode!)

Went to bed at usual time.

Monday Madness? Not Really.

Went into the office. didn't really have a need to, but thought I should make sure that the office is still there :) it was a good thing too, as Ashok left his pass at home and would have been locked out!!

Got the last couple of issues cleared up for the move to the new Bell Campus and spent the rest of the day working on CGY Work Orders.

Left early so that Beth could get to her Boot Camp class and I started back in on my SSAS training. that lasted about an hour before my favourite CGY Customer found a license issue that I needed to involve MBS and another vendor in. It never rains when it pours.

Got to bed early, with plans to get a bunch of work done on Tuesday (crosses fingers).

Sunday Cleaning

Start of the morning with Church. J served at the Altar, and for the first time in a while I didn't have to Usher. Quite a different experience sitting at the front :)

While I was out, Beth got her shelf into her office and started reorganizing.

Went and got a crap-ton of groceries at the Superstore. got them home and unloaded, picked up some McDonalds and Beth finished getting her scrapbooking stuff moved downstairs.

So the afternoon was spent reorganizing (Beth), painting (Beth), looking after the kids (Me) and getting supper ready (me).

After supper I worked on getting my shelf organized in the game room. It isn't perfect, but it will work very well.

Saturday - Running Around and Arkham

Saturdays are always busy here. First up - going to pick up a couple of expedit shelves for the basement (I think one is going in Beth's room, the other into the game room. This took longer than expected as I had to disassemble them in order to get them to fit into the van.

When I finished that, I picked up Steve, picked up a couple of comics that I had found on Craigslist and then popped up to Words and Pictures, our local comic shoppe. Didn't Pick up too much here, just a Yu-Gi-Oh Manga book for J (it only took him 10 minutes to read it, really not worth the $$ if he isn't going to get into it).

Got home, unloaded, and Beth, M and Kaylee (a friend of M's) went off to her Dance class (Kaylee has skating after that, and Beth was taking her as a favor to Kaylee's Mom.

While that was going on, Steve and I loaded the shelves into the basement, then got the kids settled and started up a game of Battle Line.

Steve is really pretty good at this, (either that or I am worse than I thought :)). We played about 5 games before I got the kids some lunch, Beth got home and Steve and I went to grab some lunch and munchies.

By the time we got back and started setting up our Game of the day, Arkham Horror. We decided we would play with the King in Yellow expansion. I know that, going into this, we had suspected that this expansion would be challenging, but I think we underestimated just how challenging it would be. We played two games, and in neither one were we really in any jepordy of defeating the GOO. Still all in all, Bruce, Steve and I had a great time. Thanks guys.

After the guys left, I put together the shelves, so that while I was at church in the morning, Beth could start loading them up as she wanted.

Set the clocks back and went to bed pretty quickly.

Quiet, then Crazy, then Ghosties!!

Well, Friday started out pretty quiet - had a pretty full week so far and I was looking forward to just getting caught up.

That lasted until I was just about ready to call it a day. Then I got an email from Tammie needing another run at the WPG customer I worked on yesterday. Got that out of the way just in time to get ready for Halloween.

In the meantime I took a run to the Rev and picked up a couple of games (Java, To Court The King and the Lunch Money expansion.

R dressed up as a giraffe. M dressed up as Cinderella and J dressed up as Darth Vader. It was a really warm night and the kids had a lot of fun. R and I lasted about an hour and Beth and other two lasted another hour or so.

Got home, sorted out the candy and crashed for the night.

Thursday - Gear Change 101

OK, started off the morning with plans to work on my favorite VCR customer. You know, the one where I have been working on the same report for almost a year? Yeah, that one.

That lasted about 2 hours, until I come to the realization that the report just won't work as detailed. So, I changed gears to my Job Ledger CGY Customer for a while. A couple kicks at can left this in Wendy's hands for the evening.

Then I got a call from Tammy and Debbie, they were having some issues with a WPG customer that they needed me to jump on. It took a couple of bits to sort that out and now it is back in Tammy's hands to close it out.

Beth had gym and school council, so I spent the evening doing some housecleaning, surfing and TV time. Pretty quiet.

I realize that I don't talk much about what the kids do in my blog. Not intentional, I don't think. Need to ponder on that one....

Battle Line for Hill 218 creates Race for the Galaxy

Started the evening with Battle Line. It took me a couple of hands to figure out the tactics of this game. You really have to pay attention to what has been played and where. this really helped me in the last couple games, when I could sneak out a couple of flags under Bruce's nose. Score 3-2 for me.

Bruce got his revenge with Battle for Hill 218. A really light game, I was really looking for some sort of deep strategy, but I found so long as you keep the zones near your Base clear, the game will basically end up in a last round battle for a draw. Still a pretty good game for what it is. Score 4-2 Bruce.

Finished up with a quick game of Race for the Galaxy. Bruce started with New Sparta and quickly put together a lot of military planets and 6-point Developments. I had a bunch of Blue planets and made a run at it, but in the end I think he won by 15 points or so.

All in all, a great night! Thanks Bruce.

Saturday is Arkham Horror in all of its glory - 4 games, each with a different expansion.

Family, Work and Game Night - Yea!!

Crazy morning looking after R while Beth went on M's field trip to Butterfield Acre. Lots of TV and Lego, can't go wrong.

Crazy afternoon at work. jumped around between most of the same stuff I worked on yesterday. Still not resolved yet.

Fun evening with Bruce as well (see other post).

To top it all off, I cooked supper!! I don't remember the last time I prepared the whole meal (yea, sure, I will grill up the meat sometimes, but rarely will I also handle the Veggies and sides.

Look Ma! I can Juggle!

Wow. CGY (x2), WPG, VCR all firing at the same time? And I keep them all happy at the same time? Must be Tuesday!

Spent the day hopping from one call to another, and somehow (so far) didnt drop any chainsaws.

The longest one was a C/SIDE to SQL conversion on a 20GB database for WPG. Just waiting for the OK to fire the trigger on the conversion and it should be ready to back up.

Didnt get to much TV in today, but I did get a lot of work done :)

Nighty-nite!

Not too bad a Monday at all...

I wish all Mondays were like this one. I had a great chat with Ashok first thing and it set my mindset for the whole week. He said, "just let it go to voicemail". Brilliant in its simplicity. Difficult for my 'oooh shiny!!' mind to handle.

I thought I would give it a try as I had a ton of work to do.
Partial list:

• Emails
• Team meeting / Time Entry / update Calendar
• Emails
• WPG payroll database transfer development
• Emails
• Weekly one-on-one with Linda
• Get CGY Customer W/O bugs cleaned up.
• help Mark B with VCR Customer AJM issues.

Finished up around 10pm. Long day, but a lot done. (only 6 voicemails to deal with :))

Didnt watch much TV at all, but worked through a bunch of Podcasts.

Sunday Cleaning

So, Church, Timmies, and sorting of all my miniatures.

Got the Heroclix, Mage Knight, MechWarrior:Dark Age and Heroscape minis all sorted into their own buckets. Then for good measure, added in the D&D Minis. Two full Shelving units filled to the brim. Very cool!

Then helped Beth out with getting some of her craft stuff ready for her shows.

Caught a couple of shows on the PVR. Sanctuary, Torchwood, Dr. Who and Numbers were good for the viewing, but nothing really jumped out at me.

Oh Well, a quiet night is better than a bad one.

A Quiet day in the life of Darren

I don't remember the last time I had a full day of absolutely nothing. It was fantastic.
I basically slacked around the enitre day and watched TV. Got a bunch of my PVR cleaned up. Heroes, Prison Break, Knight Rider and a bunch of other things.

Well, since I didn't do anything, I really don't have anything to write about ;)

A short week? who knew?

Big day today. In theory at least. Helping present a webinar on SQL with NAV. Its our first webinar and not a lot of sizzle or steak, but a very high-level overview of why you would want to convert your C/SIDE Database to SQL. I presented connecting SSRS to NAV to generate dynamic reports. I think it is pretty cool.

Got that out of the way, as well as got a final build to that pesky CGY customer.
Helped out Mark with a couple of minor issues in VCR.

At the end of the day, I realized that I could actually take Friday off!!!! Cleared it with the boss, and now I have tomorrow to myself.

Didn't do much after work tonight, watched some TV (other than Chuck, nothing comes to mind).

Well. all in all a pretty quiet night, Talk to you all soon.

A Twilight Struggle into late evening.

Bruce came over tonight for our Wargames evening. We were going to play Round 2 of Hannibal, but instead we played a game of Twilight Struggle (Bruce slept in, so we thought that Struggle would be a shorter game, show's what we know).

This was a stressful game for me, but a lot of fun. At least three times, I was 10-15 points up and looking to finish the Yankees off when out of nowhere, I would lose 15 or so points in a single round!!!

I finally conceded the game to Bruce in the tenth round, when I realized that, although I would probably be ahead at the end of this round, the end-game scoring would definitely go in his favor.

All in all, I really enjoy this game. I think I have recorded 5 plays so far and each one has been very different, but all have been a great game.

A lot of stress about nothing...

It's interesting, the hardest part of writing this blog is comign up with a title for the post. After that, it is more of a matter of actually sitting down and writing something legible.

Today, Wednesday, was day 1 of my stress days for the week. I have a conference call scheduled with a customer today to go through their NAV/SQL environment, answer any questions and confirm that their setup is kosher.

I am not sure why I am stressed about this call, but it probably has a lot to do with being the first time that I have been called upon as a SQL expert, rather than a NAV expert who could spell SQL.

The call actually went pretty well. I feel the call went really well, I know that once I started in on the call, I fell into a rhythm and time just melted away. Someday I will learn not to stress so much (yea, right ;))

I also spent time working the SQL webinar, going through another dry run today. I crashed my IIS which caused some anxiety, but I should be ready to go for Thursday.

Lots of other little things in the hopper, pushed most of those to later in the week and went home.

a Long day of phone calls and coding

Well. Today was planned to be a quiet day. I worked really late the night before to get a bunch of stuff out to my CGY customers, so that I could spend the day prepping for my Webinar.

Well, that lasted all of 5 minutes. I was on and off the phone most of the day with one of my 'special' CGY Customers, getting his Work Order interface up and running (well sort of anyway).

Barely scratched the surface of the issues for him, and I had to change gears (again).

WPG Customer needed to get their payroll data converted from NAV2.60 to NAV5.0. there are a lot of changes there, but I am working with our Payroll specialist to get the mappings right.

Ended up being a long day where I sat at the keyboard WAY past my bed time, but I think I might actually be caught up for another go of it tomorrrow!!

Monday - Got to learn to stick that landing ;)

Well, Monday chaos at its best.

Started off not too bad. Kids are still on vacation from school, so Beth has a full house.
Got into work, did the usual team meeting stuff, did a lot of work on a CGY customer's Work Order processing interface. Ashok helped out by shipping off the boxes to the VCR offices and I scheduled my week so that I can fit everything in. (looks like it will be a crazy week)

Looked like it was going to be a fairly quiet day until I got a call from home. One of the kids in the dayhome fell down a couple of steps and got a nasty cut. Beth ended up calling an ambulance, but her parents ended up taking her to the clinic. Accoding to a later call, she got 5 stitches and will be staying home on Tuesday. Looks like she will be OK!!!!

Ended up doing a bunch of work after supper (I was supposed to go pick up a shelf, but that got rescheduled until Tuesday Night.

I got caught up on a bit of TV tonight.

First two episodes of My own Worst Enemy were really cool. The premise is interesting, but not sure how long this arc can work.

Caught the episode of NCIS where Gibbs goes back to his home town. Awesome ep!

The Mentalist was interesting, but really is losing my interesting.

Big Bang Theory is absolutely awesome. So reminds me of my group of friends. Just we are not quite that smart, just that geeky.

Well, that was Monday, rated about 3 out 5.

Glory to Rome!!! (Abridged version)

Bruce and I got together on Sunday afternoon for a couple of hours of Hannibal - Rome vs. Carthage.

Neither of us had played this game before, but Bruce had read the rules and was up for it.

It took almost two hours just to cover off the rules to this Valley Games Classic. The game is absolutely beautiful and the rules are deceptively straight-forward. There are parts that feel a lot like Twilight Struggle, which is both good and bad (I tried to apply the same strategies, but the existence of the armies and generals, really seem to change the premise).

We played the first two years (in about a couple of hours) to get a feel for the rules. I still need to get a grasp on what exactly I should be doing. I read through some strategy guides after the fact and I hope that I do better on Wednesday (We have another game planned for then, where we hope to get through a full game.

It was a pretty short afternoon, but a good one.

Daiymos and more Monsterpocalypse

We started off the afternoon with Shogun. Well, sort of (See this week at home for more info on why I was two hours late ;).

I really need to focus more when I play games. I know this, really I do. Of course, you would never know that I am supposedly pretty smart, by the way I play games.

It was a really good game though, and I suspect that if I wasn't stuck in between both Steve and Bruces armies, I might have stood a chance. (Who am I kidding).

Saturday evening, I learned something very valuable. Don't play MPoc when your head really isnt in it. I am not really strong on Strategy in the first place, but even more so if I'm not paying attention.

Bruce and I played two rounds the first being Martians (Bruce) vs Sun Syndicate (me). This was almost close, but I just couldnt deal with all of the P-Dice that he kept generating.

The second round Bruce switched to my usual faction, the G.U.A.R.D. You would think that since I know something about the G.U.A.R.D. abilites, I would have fared better. Nope.

This would make 5 different games I have played, with a record of 2-3. Not bad all things considered. It did help me come up with a new tagline.

It's not about winning or losing, I just want to play.

Neroshima and Monsters!!

Sorry, these got posted out of order, I forgot to post Friday's notes before I posted Saturday's

Last night I got to play Neroshima Hex! with Alex while we were waiting for the rest of the group to show up for some MPOC.



I really want to like Neroshima, but I need a lot more practice seeing what could happen, as I always get caught with my pants down and beat up. I love the tightness of this game though and is a lot of fun.



MPoc was a lot of fun. Bruce (Martians) vs Steve (Terrasaurs) and Darren (G.U.A.R.D.) vs Alex (Planet Killers).

I beat Al, somehow, by just basically beating on his Monster with a Lightning Blast for 4 turns in a row. He was beating the crap out of my units and generating a tone of P-dice, but the repair vehicle was the key to my victory.

I think Bruce won his battle, but it was primarily due to the fact that we had misinterpreted that Monsters could walk over water without hassle. This missed fact, caused Steve to become very frustrated with the city layout.

All in all a good night was had by all and we planned for a return to the MPoc arena on Saturday night.

This Week in Gaming

Wednesday - Manoeuvre with Bruce. See my thoughts here.

Friday - Monsterpocalypse with Steve, Al and Bruce. My Thoughts

Saturday (Afternoon) - Shogun with Steve, Al and Bruce. My Thoughts

Saturday (Evening) - Conquest of the Empire with Steve,Al and Bruce (cancelled). More Monsterpocalypse with Steve, Al and Bruce (My thoughts)

Sunday - Meetup at Legends Games with Bruce. My first meetup at this location. Heck, my first meetup since Fallcon. (This got cancelled. Well, not cancelled, more of Bruce and I changed plans and we played Hannibal) (My Thoughts)

Monsterpocalypse thoughts

Well, I finally picked up some of the miniatures and I must say I am impressed with them. I got in a introductory game last week with Al, Steve and Doug and it was a lot of fun.

I think I will focus on the G.U.A.R.D. faction for now, mainly because that is the faction that I have the most in. I really like the Planet Killers faction as well, but I don't really have enough to field a decent amount.

I know that I can mix factions and such, but until I get a better grasp on the rules, I'd rather take advantage of the syngery gained within the faction/agenda.

We have another MPoc session tomorrow, I'll post more then.

This Week at Work

Monday - Stat holiday (Thanksgiving). Did some SQL Analysis Server training.

Tuesday - Team meeting, cleaned up some issues around a NAV/AJM Merge for a Vancouver customer. Met with some of the VCR Team regarding a SQL Customer that needs assistance.

Wednesday - spent most of the day working out a SSRS/NAV Demo for a webinar

Thursday - Worked on a CGY Customer cleaning up some Work order issues. Mark found some issues in the VCR stuff and I worked on that for a bit.

Friday - Drove to work because today is Office cleanup day, lots of stuff cleanedup and out. Less than a month until the big move (supposedly). Worked on CGY Customer for the remainder.

Saturday - Expanded one of our customer internal databases that was in peril of running out of space.

This Week at Home

Thanksgiving Turkey on Sunday was great - almost got everyone eating at the table at the same time :).

Monday I spent most of the day trying to catch up on my PVR while Beth frantically paints for her winter craft shows.

My kids are off school, but the day-home show must go on! Beth balances keeping the kiddos occupied with painting and housework (I couldnt do it!). On top of that she has classes almost every night.

Tuesday - Worked from home. Voted - Another Minority Conservative Government (why did we waste all this time and money again?)

Wednesday - Went into the office. Played wargames with Bruce (Manouevre).

Thursday - Worked from home. Finally caught up on the background posts to this blog. Beth went to Bootcamp and we talked about her joining the Biggest Loser online Group. Figured out the budget for 2009. Boy I hope I get a raise, looks like Beth will have to keep 2 fulltime kids in the dayhome for at least one more year.

Friday - Drove to work (first time I think since 2003), paid the bills online, probably headed to the Sentry Box after work and then Gaming tonight.

Saturday - Picked up some Toys for the Kids, took M to Dance classes, did some shopping. then plans went out the window as I helped Colin move a couch, chair and table into his new place. Family before hobbies, right? Then went to the basement to play Shogun with Steve and Bruce.

Sunday - Slept through church, Beth and kids went to Zoo with Vicki. Bruce and I played Hannibal. Folded laundry for an hour or so. Tried to catch up on some TV.

Who am I? - All caught up

Let's see. Oh yes. One more major event to cover before we get really caught up. in October 2005, Beth gave birth to our third (and probably final) child R. A blue-eyed devil of a boy who is determined to be the best of us (and well on his way :)).

Other than lots of gaming, RPG's and little family things, the last couple of years (from my self-centered opinion) have been pretty stable...

OH WHO AM I KIDDING!!!

Let's see - Beth is running a day home so that we can afford to live in Calgary. J is in a Gr. 4/5 Split class and keeping his head above water. M started Kindergarten and R is attempting to make the terrible two's stretch from newborn - high school.

Me? I, somehow am semi-in-charge of our Calgary Office for the Navision team. Considering the current size of our team, not a huge dose of responsibility, but someone has to do it.

to people who know and put up with me, I know that there are a lot of gaps in this 'Who am I?' section. To them, put a comment in, remind me of what I've missed or forgotten or even completely turned around!.

thanks

Who am I? Calgary - The first few Years

So. Moved to Calgary. Bunked up with a couple of friends (Al and Doug) from high school for a couple of weeks while Beth and J packed up our stuff back in Saint John. I've known Alex and Doug for what seems forever and we have all been gaming for years and years.

Started work with CSB on July 16, 2001. Working as a Navision Developer, I literally jumped right into a huge project in Edmonton that lasted for about 2 years. I did a bunch of other dev work during that time and it was a lot of fun.

My Mentor, who worked as project manager and implementer on most of my projects was Wendy. Wendy is an ex-pat Brit who really taught me how the world of consulting works. We had our good days and bad (I just dreaded getting the 'I'm extremely disappointed....' emails, but they really helped me to apply due diligence.

CSB stood on its own for about 4 years while I was there and then we got notice that we were being bought out. Bell Canada wanted to increase its foothold in the ERP and professional services domain, and picked our little engine to help with that.

We were merged with a couple of other companies to form Bell Business Solutions, which was headquartered out of Montreal. This was a very turbulent time for the Navision team, but we survived.

Well, enough of work, what was going on in my personal life? A lot! (Oh? you want more?, fine.)
Let's see.... My Beautiful Daughter M was born in 2004 and she is a daddy's girl. Strong willed, but willing to cry at the drop of a hat, she never ceases to amaze me.

Got a new gaming group formed here in Calgary. A great group of guys with Alex and Doug (mentioned above) starting the core and then adding Bruce, Steve and Drew (There was also Dave, but he only lasted about 2 months before running in fear, but I don't think anyone misses him :)) We played primarily D&D3.5, but Bruce and Steve, also introduced me to Euro-Boardgames with Settlers of Catan.

Alternating between RPG's and boardgames, we get together almost every weekend for a few hours of comraderie and friendship. A Great group of guys and excellent friends.

Other changes in my life would be Beth and I converting to the Catholic faith. It began innocently enough, with getting J into one of the better schools in Calgary, MNA. This is a Year-Round school (shorter summer break and a couple of other breaks during the year).

We slowly started attending Ascension Church with our adopted family, The Hayles. Anne and Vicki are now Grammy Anne and Aunt Vicki and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I finished our journey into the faith, Easter 2007. I find it a necessary part of my life now, something I didnt realize I was missing until I found it.


NOTE: One more background entry, then I should be caught up.

Manouvre with Bruce

Round 2 of Manouvre with Bruce tonight. Started off playing the Russians (me) versus the Ottomans (Bruce). Bruce won this at the end the day phase, having more troops on my side than I had on his.

The second game had USA (Me) versus Spain (Bruce) where I did the same thing to him this time.

I really like this game, lots of replayability due to the 8 different armies and lots of terrain tiles. So long as I play patiently (this is a common theme to the deep-strategy games that I have seen), I can do pretty good.

I had a great time tonight. Thanks Bruce.

First day blues :(

Well, this is interesting. Received an email from Blogger, saying that this site may have violated some sort of terms of service or could be a spam blog.

I suspect it is because I did a lot of journalling today, so hopefully the review will clear me of any issues.

More to come (hopefully).

Who am I? - Marriage to Calgary

At the time I got married, I was working for BM Wilson & Associates. This was a great learning experience for me. They contracted me to NBTel to work on a customer service Application in COBOL and I learned what it is to work in a professional IT department.

FYI - nothing in school really prepares you for this. I was fortunate that I did my internship at this very same position, otherwise, it could have been disasterous. I think I did pretty well there, once I learned the ropes. I wasn't a super-star by any means, but I was willing to put in the effort, which counted for a lot then.

1998. Near the end of my contract, a major turning point in my life occured. I was offered a chance to work directly with NBTel as an employee, or I could work on BM Wilson's internal IT team. Looking back, I am not sure I made the right decision, but I definitely learned a lot by the decision I made. It probably made for a harder road, but a necessary one.

1999. Major change on the homefront!! Beth and I are pregnant! J was born in February, a beautiful and energetic baby boy. J and I are cut from the same cloth, full of energy and no idea how to focus it. I love him, and he is the most entertaining and frustrating part of my life.

In the summer of 1999, I screwed up. I was working internally at BM Wilson and without getting into too many details, I grew lax, overconfident and in a nutshell, I got was I deserved. The Wilsons let me go and it is one of those things that pulls me out of a deep sleep at night. I betrayed a trust with friends, not just employers. I will forever be sorry for that, but it taught me that you have to always stay vigilant (sounds corny, but overconfidence is the biggest killer).

After a couple of months, we ended up having to move back into my parents (round 6 by my count). I was quite depressed during this stage and directionless. Without Beth and J (and my parents) it could have been very dark. I posted my resume on a number of jobs, and had a number of interviews, but nothing clicked.

Then, one day I got a call. It was in response to a job posting that I really don't remember sending my resume to. They were looking for a programmer with Visual Basic experience and willing to learn a new product.

Thus began my journey into the world of Navision. After 4 weeks of training in Atlanta, I joined a small Solution center called Central Software (later Central Solutions). We did 2 implementations of Navision over two years and the company folded. It seems a very short paragraph on such a challenging time, and someday I may come back and flesh it out, but that is all I want to say for now.

Two highlights from my time in Central. First, I got to work from home, which really gave me the opportunity to see J grow up. It also gave me the opportunity to work almost every other waking hour, but such is life. Secondly, I worked with a wonderful mentor, Lloyd Queen. There is not enough space in this blog to tell you the things this man taught me. Business, life, family, what have you, we had long discussions about every subject imaginable.

2001. When Central folded, it was almost expected. Sad, but expected. I actually only sent out one resume, to a company I had met at a Navision conference in Atlanta. CSB Systems. I talked to them on the phone, they flew me out for an interview and two weeks later, we were moving to Calgary!

Who Am I? - High School to Marriage

After graduating Sussex Regional High School in 1989, I joined the Canadian Armed Forces. Well, sort of. I lasted 3 days of boot camp before I got discharged on a medical (phych) condition. Someday I may tell that story in its fullest, but not today.

I did a couple of odd-jobs for a couple of years, not really making any real progress (I did play lots of D&D during this time, and made some really stupid decisions in my social life as well.
I delivered pizza, installed waterbeds, sold furniture and a couple of other one-time jobs that aren't even worth mentioning at this time.

in 1993, I went to Trade School (Eastern Business Computer Institute) to get some professional training in Computer Programming. This one year course was a complete waste of my time. I learned a lot of really interesting things that, it turns out, no one in the real world was interested in. Especially from a fly-by-night operation. All of my resumes probably ended up in an HR office roundfile (trash can).

1995. Relentlessly, and undaunted (and also, wanting to move out of my parents house for the 3rd or 4th time) I registered at the New Brunswick Community College - Saint John. This was the first time I moved out of my hometown by myself.

I guess one thing that really hadn't shown up in my thoughts yet, was that I was a pretty quiet person. Very few friends, keeping to myself a lot, mostly reading or geeking on my computer.

When I moved to Saint John and started school, I decided that I had an opportunity to become someone else. No one really knew me here, and no pre-conceived notions would be in place. I was determined to talk to everyone, join in and break out of my 'shell'.

I did this, every day and every night I threw up from the stress of it all. Eventually it got easier, I got to know people in my class and in the rest of the school. I joined the Student Council, I sat with people at lunch and in general, just tried to fit in with everyone. I firmly believe that this was the key to where I am today. Hard skills like programming languages are easy to pick up, but soft skills like communication and personality are key to moving forward.

In summer break (this was a two-year course) I met the woman who changed my life forever. I had known Beth, really all of my life. We were in Kindergarten together and I was friends with her brother on-and-off through school. I'm still fuzzy on how this all started, but it was probably my friend Julie's fault. I had been in love with Julie all through High-School and even after when we both moved to Saint John for school, but she was (and always will be) a 'Best Friend', not a 'Girlfriend' (I was probably in love with her younger sister Dawn as well, but that is another story).

The first date with Beth I remember was at the Drive-in in Sussex. I couldn't tell you what was playing, I just know that Beth and I cuddled the entire time, barely even talking. It had begun.

Three Days later, Beth was in a motorcycle accident. I was in a car behind her and saw the entire thing. She was pretty beat up, with a lot of road rash and a couple of mangled fingers, but in the end she came out fine. My dad always joked that she tried to get out of the relationship by driving off of the bridge, but I think it was an event that brought us ultimately together.

1996. We ended up living together in Saint John while I finished my last year of school. I proposed to her around Thanksgiving, and we got married May 31, 1997.

Who am I? - Up to High School

Good question. This is always tricky posting such information to the Web, as you never know who may be lurking out there. Yes, there are scarier people on the web than I.

I was born in the early 1970's to a very unusual family. Unusual in the fact that they are loving, caring and still married after raising my brother and I and setting us free on to the world. They live in Sussex New Brunswick, where I spent most of my formative years (which may explain a lot to some of you).

I got interested in computers while we spent two years living in very rural Ontario (Port Burwell, pop.~500). My dad bought me a Commodore 64 and I fell in love with it. I spent Gr. 8&9 in Ontario, and beyond the usual hobbies of Hockey and Boy Scouts, I joined the High-school Wrestling team. (They needed to fill the ultra-feather weight slot, I never won a single match, but being on the wrestling team did keep the other bullies at bay ;)).

We moved back to New Brunswick for Gr.10 and I began my delve into Dungeons and Dragons. History will tell whether my fateful encounter with Cecil Stacey was for good or ill, but I was hooked. Between Computers and D&D, just about every spare moment was occupied. (This did wonders for my marks, and my attitude towards school, let me tell you).

In the Beginning

Well, I have been thinking about blogging for quite a while. I read a lot of blogs, but I am primarily a lurker by nature.

I may come up with a concrete topic for this Blog, but for now, it will be very sporadic.