Tag: toronto Posts

Wow.. I’m beat. I made the mistake of staying up late last night, thinking that I would be tired enough to pass out and get a few hours. Unfortunately, I hardly slept at all last night, and am at the airport, completely bagged. It’s 5:50am, and I have another 40 minutes before the plane boards. Clearly I was a bit tired last night as well, since I drove all the way to my landlord’s house to drop off six checks that I somehow made out in the wrong amount on all of them (something that wasn’t discovered until I got all the way back home);. Thankfully, I brought along a mild sedative, and as soon as I board I’m going to hopefully manage to sleep for the duration of the flight. The procedure to checkin my luggage was a big clusterfuck this morning, so I’m hoping my luggage actually makes […]

I got back home last night at around 2am and promptly climbed under my duvet for a long night of sleep. I spent the evening with some old high school friends, and invited myself into a poker tournament that was going on in the evening. I somehow managed to come in second out of ten people, even though I don’t really know how to play (which seems to always sort of happen – I won our first work tournament last year, and come in fourth out of thirty last time). I just woke up around 11:30am here, and feel fairly rested. My stomach is clearly not impressed that I have stopped antibiotics, but hopefully it will settle itself down soon. I have so much to do today it’s not even funny. I’ve never been that great at self-organization, and I’m sure that will be clear by the end of today. […]

A few minutes ago, I took the last of the foul-tasting, side-effect inducing crud that I started nearly four weeks ago. The last few days have been particularly hard, and I’ve found myself extremely tired, have had a metallic taste in my mouth, and also a fairly bad migraine. While most of my family played board games tonight, I was forced to retire to the couch in the other room and attempt to out-sleep my pounding head. 168 little antibiotic goodies The Last 2 Out Of 168 Pills Hopefully in the next day or so, as the drug leaves my system, I’ll start feeling alot like my old self again. I should also be healthy again, which is the most important thing. As of tomorrow night, I will also be able to have a few beers again, which I’ll definitely need if I’m going to survive my trip to Toronto. […]

Ahh, relaxation. Definitely enjoying it. I’ve been sleeping lots, eating lots, and watching a pile of movies. For the most part, my ass has been firmly planted on the living room couch, but I’ve managed to get outside a bit and see some relatives. Today is Christmas over at my sister’s house. Since my parents are split, today is Christmas with my mom’s side of the family. I have two gifts each for my niece and nephew, so I’ll bring one set over today and leave the other here at my dad’s for tomorrow’s round. Us adults don’t really buy for each other, but we’ve always sort of enjoyed getting the kids a few things. My grandma (or Baba as we all call her), is a cute Ukrainian lady that has been a huge influence on my life. I spent a lot of my childhood over at her place watching […]

Last night I made the long trek out of the downtown core and ended up near Metrotown, which surprisingly isn’t as far away as I imagined. Chad has a really nice pad out there, complete with an outdoor deck that would be just killer for summer parties and BBQing. Chad has a tradition at his party where everyone has to pick a decoration for the tree, and then proceed to make love to it somehow. Not sure how this came to be, but everyone eagerly began licking and kissing their decorations. After everyone had hit the beers in the fridge, Chad promptly dove straight into his massive scotch collection and started going crazy on that. After a few, he basically took position in his recliner like some dude out of masterpiece theatre and began to chuckle to himself occasionally. I was giving Raymi a play-by-play via SMS, and when I […]

Tony officially booked all his flights and everything for New Year’s in Toronto, at which point he tossed the email-gauntlet towards me and said “what’s up now?’ So, I have stepped up to the challenge and have also booked a flight for Toronto. Unfortunately, flying in Canada at that time of year is pretty pricy, so my flights are all at weird times to save money (and coming home it’s a three-city milk-run). The Guy On The Left Should Really Come Too I’ll be spending Christmas at home with the family, and then heading out to Toronto to enjoy the cold for a few days. I’ll probably have to call in a few favours and find a few couches to crash on out there, but I will definitely be showing up and enjoying some snow amongst friends.

So I spent about two hours tonight talking to Tony, and I think we both agreed on one thing — spending New Years in our own cities was pretty fucking lame. So, right now, we’re both thinking about heading to Toronto for New Year’s eve, which might be a fairly large mistake for me, I’m not sure.. To be honest, I’m not sure Toronto wants to handle me for that long. I need to convince Chad and Danielle to come with me. But, I’d love to get out of Vancouver for the holidays and just be me for a while. Not Duane the programmer, or Duane the engineer, or Duane the anything.. Just duane the eyeballl smasher. I miss that guy. So, if you’re in Vancouver, and can swing flying to TO for New Year’s drop me a line, and let’s see what we can do. PS – I haven’t […]

Last night I met up with John and Rebecca to watch the hockey game down at Fogg ‘n Suds. I’m not super familiar with the Canucks line anymore, so being around super hockey Canucks people is a bit intimidating. That being said, I did manage watch some of the game and to lose myself for a time in the high-ball fishbowls that they were serving there. John and me, hanging out at John and Rebecca’s house – not sure why we put hats on I’m smack in the middle of packing for my trip, trying to figure out what to bring and what not to bring. As the first leg of the trip is work-related, I have to make sure to bring all the technical things I will need, which amounts to my laptop and a few mobile devices. I also am trying to gather up my camera gear, which […]

Slight change of plans. I was originally going to go to Toronto on the 26th, but I’m going to go to Ottawa the week before for work. So, I’ll be bouncing into Toronto on the 26th, but instead of coming from Vancouver, I’ll be coming in on a flight from Ottawa. That will put me into Toronto several hours earlier, which should take a bit of pressure off with having to get downtown from the airport. I’ll be staying out in Kanata in a really great hotel called The Brookstreet Hotel, which just happens to be owned by Terry Matthews (whose company recently merged with ours). Apparently Terry and/or the company out there has box seats in Scotia Bank Place (formerly the Corel Center), so I’m crossing my fingers that I might actually get to see a game out there.

Well, I’m exhausted. I can rarely sleep on planes, and this trip was no different. We landed about 20 minutes ago, and all I want to do is curl up in a ball and have a nice sleep, but unfortunately I have to transfer plans in a bit and head to Ottawa. Normally I’d find a chair and try to sleep, but given that my body is about 8 hours behind on sleep now, I don’t think it’s a good idea to close my eyes, since I probably will sleep right through the boarding call on my plane. The flight out here was rather uneventful, although I have to say flying in business class kicks some major ass. Not only did I have a pile of room, but my seat had an electric massage thing built in. The guy next to me just happened to be one of the loudest […]