Darren B's blog

Oh Friday, Sweet Friday

DarthBrock_Revealed_Tiny

Happy Friday! 

The most stressful thing that happened to me yesterday was breaking a glass.

Oh, that’s such happy news (once I got past the fact that I had to move the bed to get the little shards).  Oh, and the dog rolled in something and had to be bathed while I was cooking supper.  And I burned the ham (just a little) and had one of my PCs fail.

Anyway, the point is that my stressors are back to normal!  Oh, happy day.

Tomorrow is date night and I’m in a really spectacular mood.

I did a little work last night on my 8mm Film to DVD job and the reels all transferred flawlessly.  Perfect colour and no flicker.  I’ll render them this weekend and have the finished product ready to go for Monday morning.

The cash will go toward the kitchen renovation (or maybe our next vacation – we got a Sunshine Guarantee coupon because of Gustav – so we’ll be going back to Jamaica to collect the coupon – it’s worth over $300 off our next vacation!)

I’m hoping to make really good progress on my mapping app today – it’s way easier to program the tough algorithms when you’re in a good mood.  I should be able to get the tough stuff wrapped up today – then it’s all integration and cleanup.  Should be good.

Sherry is trying to talk Johnny into letting her go the Second week in November instead of the Third.  That’d be cool.  I doubt he’ll fall for it, but I have vacation booked for the fourth week to force Johnny’s hand a little (he did promise, but every now and then he changes his mind...)

I’m thankful that I’m in such a good mood today – it should be a fabulously productive day!

I’m thankful that I’m in such a good mood today – it should be a really fun date night

I’m thankful that I’m in such a good mood today – it’s a reflection of my life returning to normal

I know that God wants me to spend more time in deep joy.

Oh, the new helmet looks SO much better!

I couldn't resist!

 

 

DarthBrock_Tiny

It's almost time for Darth Brock

DarthBrockAndDoug_Tiny

 
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That was nice

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Date night was a lot of fun this week.  We didn’t do anything special, but we were both feeling great (and not tired) so we had a good time.  We called it a night early, which was pretty good since the early morning meeting on Saturday really comes too early…

Our (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend is over now and it was nice.

The trip to Sherry’s side went a little longer than we expected and it wiped out my plans for the evening.  I wasn’t overly happy about having my plans cancelled.

I did have a chance to do some off road ATVing while I was at Sherry’s sister’s place.  That was a good time (until I stalled my machine in the middle of the river – fortunately it started back up and I made it up the bank without getting too wet).

So, we cleared our evening for the next night when Sherry hosted (since we couldn’t just leave our own party).  Turns out to be a good thing, too.  We ate around 2:00 and the last guests didn’t leave until about 7:00.

We had a great time visiting over a glass of wine and some pie.  It was really nice.  Mom and Dad left early but not before Dad had a chance to enjoy a couple of glasses of wine :-)   Mom had a great time telling stories from Al and my past to Al’s son and Rick.  Fun times.

Church was interesting this week.  We had a visitor come in while I was behind the desk and she was chatting with me when she announced that she felt like she was supposed to pray for us.  She asked for permission, we said yes and Charlene prayed some very specific things for us – like she had known us for years.  Cool.

We bought a rental hot tub (I think I mentioned this) and it was really, really nice to be able to soak in a hot tub again – I had forgotten how much I missed it.

The plan is to set it up for 9 days (two weekends) and then tear it down for a week or two and then set it up again.  This will keep the water maintenance easy, reduce the heating bill and allow us to only use it when we really feel like it.  We’ll use the games room in the winter and the side yard in the summer.  Should be a good time.  We’ll buy one of those Rubbermade bins to store it in while it’s not in use.

There’s an issue with the jets with this specific one, so we’ll need to get that addressed, but it shouldn’t be too big an issue.

I get to teach tomorrow night, so I wrote a bunch of mapping code this morning and then went over my teaching notes this afternoon.  I’ll get the handouts ready tomorrow.

I’ve booked my time off for the rest of the year.  No big travel plans since Jamaica took up most of our fun money for the year.  We’ll do some kitchen work and maybe a long weekend to Chicago to visit with Ken and Eiko…

I’m thankful that Thanksgiving went so well.  It was nice to have a pleasant time with friends and family

I’m thankful that I enjoy teaching.

I’m thankful that Sherry and I are able to connect so well – even after a long week.

I know that God still speaks to us today.

Is it Friday yet?

DarthPumpkin

Oh, I was in a foul mood yesterday.  It’s better today.

We’re hosting a dinner on Monday for a couple of couples that got left out of other plans.  It should be a good time – I’m toying with breaking out the Guitar Hero and having a tournament.  We have fooseball too…

Today was a catch up day – I’m teaching next week so I had to get my handouts ready and tune up my powerpoint and get my notes in order, yada yada.

I’m looking forward to our long weekend.  It should be a good time.

We bought a rental hot tub.  It’s one of the cheapo ones that inflates and then tears down at the end of the weekend.  I suspect that it’ll still be cheaper to run than the old one that we had.  It cost us about $15 per use for the last one – and I can’t see using that much water and natural gas to heat the water…  I’ll let you know how it goes – this weekend will be our first.

Sherry is finishing up a $20,000 back yard tune up.  Yikes.  It’s been nasty work and she’s been getting home a little grumpy too.  Bummer.  Tonight is pizza and a movie rental and NOTHING else.  Hopefully she’ll be in the mood for a date night tomorrow.

It’s a little scary in the stock market now.  We’ve lost thousands upon thousands of dollars of our retirement savings.  They had better recover…

I’m thankful that we date.

I’m thankful that have a home theater

I’m thankful that we can afford pizza (even if our stocks have taken a beating).

I know that God will care for me regardless of what the markets do.

Is it Friday yet?

No?  Ohhh.  Bummer.

This week has seemed to drag on.  Bummer.

At least this weekend is a long weekend – we can take a break on Saturday and then play catch up on Sunday.

DarthBrock_OnWhite

I’ve decided not to do any fiberglass work on Vader and I think I’m going to enter the costume in the bar contest this year (Halloween is a Friday this year – so it’s time).  I’ll need to tune the costume, do some studio work and then organize my entourage.

The costume is hot an uncomfortable, so I’m hoping that the bar doesn’t have a minimum time commitment (I also can’t drink with the full face mask, so it’s not going to be a lot of fun for me…)

I’ve enlisted my bar-savvy brother to lead the entourage, so hopefully he’ll be able to handle the bulk of the details.

We’re also planning on lighting the huge (30’) tree in our front yard this season.  We have about 1200 LED lights ready to mount on the tree.

It’s not clear that anyone is planning on coming to our Thanksgiving dinner.  We’ve invited four couples, but no one is willing to commit.  It could just be me and Sherry.  Hmmm. 

Coffee was really nice with Rick yesterday.  The hour flew by and then I had to rush home and make supper.  We’ve been trying to eat up the Roast that Sherry cooked on Sunday and we still have enough meat for one more meal – I guess we’re doing Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches for supper tonight.  At least it was a really tasty roast.

Michelle has finally realized that she was spending thousands of dollars a year more than she earned.  Now that we’re no longer subsidizing any of her budgets she’s realized the debt that accumulates when you spend more than you earn (why didn’t anyone teach that to the people who took out all those sub-prime mortgages?)

She’s been working on finding a job, but it’s tough without a high school diploma.  She’s planning on going back in January – I guess that progress.  Last time she went back because I wanted her to.  This time it’s because she wants to – let’s hope this one takes.

It sucks that she has to learn these lessons in a such an incredibly painful (for her AND us) way.

Bummer.

I’m thankful that Michelle seems to be learning the lessons that I just couldn’t teach her while she was living here – long before she turns 20.

I’m thankful that she had somewhere to sleep while she figures this out (she’s paying rent to Leah’s Mom – which she absolutely refused to do here).

I’m thankful that I have a decent support system to see me through this remarkably painful learning process.

I know God wants us to have a strong community of people to support us.

I'm not bitter... really.

IMG_5579

 
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Whxhxx!

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Blah

BlackPointing_resize

Mondays are a terrible way to spend 1/7th of your life.

Blah.

In other news we had a pretty good weekend.  First Friday was interesting.  I don’t think I get today’s art.

There was a ‘landscape’ artist show this month and one artist had filled a room in the gallery with cedar mulch (from my wife’s company) and placed cut logs around the room as seats (campfire style) and had a video running with the downtown map (where the gallery is) with tree icons popping up and down.

That’s it.

Mulch, stumps and an animated map.

Art.

Hmmm.

Art.

It smelled nice.

Mmmm.  Cedar.

Art.

Ok.

Another artist had a pile of corn husks (landscape theme, right) in the middle of the room with a rock in the centre of the pile.

That’s it.

Corn husks.  Rock.

Art.

Ok.

It didn’t smell like much.

Art.

So Sherry and I pretty much called it a night and watched a movie at home on the big screen.  That was nice

Saturday after our 6am meeting we took a quick trip to the States.  We picked up some stuff from the POBox and then bought some groceries and gas (next weekend is Thanksgiving here).

That night we went to a demonstration of Yoga and Prana Yoga Massage.  Very, very cool.  Sherry is planning on taking a few classes in the off season – that should be fun – and good for her physically too.  The massage looked wonderful – I entered the draw to win one (a $65 value!) – here’s hoping!

We called it a night early then too.

Sunday was church and a Deep Coffee with a friend of mine.  He had some pretty deep insights into Michelle’s situation.  He shared about his own ‘girl gone wild’ teenager.  We laughed, we cried.  It was good for both of us.

We went to our Home Depot to look at kitchen remodeling supplies (which we plan to do in Sherry’s off season).  And we accidentally bought a soft-walled hot tub – the kind that you rent for a weekend. 

We had been looking at them off and on for a while and at 1/10th the price of the last hot tub we had it seemed like a good deal.  We took the risk and bought one that was on clearance yesterday – we pick it up tonight – I’ll keep you posted.

Sherry is still looking forward to the end of work.  The job she’s on now sucks – which is exactly why she got it.  Bummer.  At least Johnny knows she can handle the brutal jobs – which is why she gets a pay raise each season.

I had coffee with Nancy P. today.  That was an amazing time.  She has such an incredible story and it’s inspirational.  We had a great time.  Rick needed a sympathetic ear today and Don wanted to chat too.  It was a social day – it’s a good thing that I was changing hardware today and had two one hour backup / transfer jobs – the timing was absolutely perfect!

I’m thankful that Coffee is a good way to visit.

I’m thankful that I know a little more of how Michelle sees the world (even if it doesn’t really make sense).

I’m thankful that Sherry will be able to soak in a tub of hot water after a long day’s work again (she really missed our old hot tub).

I know that God wants Sherry to be comfortable after a hard days work.

Sometimes it's all about John

JohnFaceHalfLit_BW_SignedWithCredit_BlueEye_Tiny

So, it turns out that the first Friday of each month is an art exhibition in our downtown.  We’ve been out once or twice when we know someone who’s in that month’s exhibition. 

Now I’ve been invited to join in the technology team for the event.  Every month videographers submit DVDs that they want screened and they choose six or eight videos and someone has to switch DVDs, cue and play the shows.

Well they need someone to join the videos into a single disk that they can just press play.  Whohoo – that’s me!

(Ok so every desk jockey is now thinking that it’s relatively easy to rip tracks from a DVD and re-write them as a single disk – it turns out that it’s not that easy.  Bummer – each artist has their own ideas on how to create the MPEG2 stream and some of them don’t agree with my codec.  Darn).

I think that Sherry and I will take a quick trip downtown to make an appearance at First Friday and then call it a night early – we’ll rent a movie and take it easy.

Tomorrow is an open house and a friends place.  That should be a good time – I haven’t seen Stef in a while.  If you’re in town you should join us!

Michelle’s blown us off a couple of times now.  We’ve gathered her stuff up for her now and reclaimed her room as the guest room again (until she comes back?)   She’ll need to prove that she’s serious this time before she moves back in.  I guess that means that she’ll either need to be a couple of weeks into her school semester or a couple of months into a full time job?

Monday is Clean Up Day at work – I’m looking forward to that.  I abuse my space by cheating the clean up time to get just a little more work done and then the stuff really doesn’t ever make it back to where it’s supposed to be and then twice a year (or so) we put an entire afternoon into cleaning up.  That’ll make it nice to work in here again!

Sherry is starting her penultimate job on Monday – she’s looking forward to cleaning this one up and moving on.  John had a brilliant idea today while I was explaining the tension between her wanting to be done before too many bad weather days affects her EI and Johnny wanting her to stay until the last job is done.

John suggested that she offer to do all of Johnny’s jobs as long as he guarantees her a minimum pay check each week.  Brilliant.  (When I told him that he squeezed my knee… hmmm). 

John and I nailed a contract negotiation today.  Whohoo – I love that.

John is teaching his patented Improv Bootcamp starting the end of October – I am *so* looking forward to that.  I just hope I don’t suck.

I’m thankful that I can take classes like the Improv Bootcamp – it means that I’m still growing and progressing

I’m thankful that I understand negotiations – it helps me earn more money

I’m thankful that I have smart (and funny) friends – it makes my life easier.

I know that God wants me to have more with less work.

Happy Birthday Little Brother!

BernieAtAmiga_Tiny

 
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I’m thankful that I’ve adjusted to being 40 so well.

I’m thankful that Sherry has a fabulous job that she can look forward to taking a break from.

I know that God counts relationships among the most valuable possessions that we have.