It won't be much longer now until things start heating up around here. It seems like just a few days ago that Christmas was here (or possibly it only seems that way because my tree is still up). I for one am getting pretty excited about enjoying the sun again when it comes. This summer I'm hoping to do quite a bit of camping and hiking. The campground reservation system for the lower mainland isn't open yet, but I found out that the one in Tofino actually opened the other day. So I decided to ...

Well, maybe not *above*, but at least *at* Starbucks. Feels weird being back into the groove again to be honest. I have never been on a two week vacation before, and it's strange coming back again and trying to fire the engines up again, especially when the engines have been soaked in beer for two weeks. I'm down at my local Starbucks in Vedder Crossing here trying to get everything in order so that I can hit everything hard again starting tomorrow. I started the evening with 400 messages in my inbox, and am down to around 15 ...

One on the aspects of vacation that I always enjoy is getting time to reflect on things without the noise of the real world interfering. A couple of times I sat by the pool, staring through my book and thinking about things back home, about the last year, about my life, about the future. It's really hard to believe that it's been nearly a year since I packed up my things in Vancouver and headed back to Chilliwack. I spent eight out of the last fourteen years in university. While I had some really great times back in ...

Today is day #13 down here in the Caribbean, and I noticed that the date was December 1st this morning. I gotta say, it's pretty hard to take December seriously when the humidex is 40C and there's not a cloud in the sky. This is probably the first December where I've ever been away on vacation, and it's a bit surreal to be honest. After two weeks here, my clothes are starting to smell a bit like ass. I was hoping to use the laundry service here (where they pick stuff up in your room and bring it ...

It's hard to believe that I've been down in the Caribbean for 11 days now, but that's how the math works out. I woke up this morning and spent a few moments trying to figure out what day of the week it was, since it's pretty easy to lose track. Sara made it home ok, and Dale and I have been working on some BraveNewCode stuff since she left. Yesterday we spent most of the day in the room, Dale designing away and me coding away. We're keeping the lid on most of the things we're working on, ...

About half-way through my flight the other day I went to the bathroom and really wasn't feeling good. I really have no idea what it was, but my stomach was pretty upset and I was feeling a bit achy. Shortly after writing my blog posting yesterday, I ended up feeling pretty worse, and went to my room to curl up in bed. I passed out around 8pm or so, and slept until almost noon this morning (unfortunately, a rather unrestful sleep since my stomach was keeping me up). So I'm not sure if I caught something on ...

First off, Seattle was a lot of fun, and it was great seeing Dave and Lauren tie the knot. The ceremony was really well done, and the venue was spectacular. I had a really great time there with my friend Lynn and everyone else we met on the dance floor. I haven't been all suited up in a while, so it was nice to dress up for a change. The Alexis Hotel fireplace suite was really posh as well, and it was super nice of them to put me up in it for the weekend. This morning ...

Hard to believe I'll be getting on a plane in 10 days and heading on vacation for two weeks. Truthfully, I'm really looking forward to relaxing by the pool with a few books. Reading is something I get a lot of enjoyment out of, but for whatever reason I go through big periods where I don't really read all that much. So I'm hoping to hit a Chapters store before I leave and grab a pile of books. Like most vacations, I'm debating whether or not to bring my digital SLR. Truthfully, I think I'm going to ...

How's that for a title? It'll pretty much sum my day up when it's all over. For whatever reason, I've been super tired lately. Despite getting a fairly normal amount of sleep during the week, I've hit the last few weekends completely exhausted. Yesterday, for example, I spent a few hours sleeping on the couch by the fire. Upon waking up in the early evening, I watched a few movies, and then went straight to bed, sleeping in until around 10am (after the time change). It definitely feels great, but I really don't know ...

I just got home from dropping Dale and Patrick off at the Abbotsford airport. Without a doubt, it was a great visit, and it was good to catch up with both of them. As I mentioned previously, this last weekend was the last item on my radar for the foreseeable future. This last summer was extremely busy -- I attended two out of town conferences, and it seemed like I was bouncing in and out of the city on a routine basis. Given that I moved into my new place here in January, it's only recently ...