Not Busy, Buy a House

So you like to fix things you say? Well why not buy a house. Not just any old house, but a house on Silvia Street. That will get you in the right direction.

Now don't get me wrong, I love my house, but lately I have been getting a little depressed. I mean, my house is a lovely character home, and it definetly builds character. Let's start with the first big project... building the garage. The plan was to build a new garage, that was simple. I guess for the most part it was not that bad, except the fact that it cost a few bucks. Well then there is the issue of the old garage. I am starting to make plans on how to rip it down. Do I hire someone to tear it down or do I try to dismantle it piece by piece. Once that is done, I get to paint the trim on the outside of the house, eavestroughs are a little sketchy so those are next. Once the garage is torn down, I can reseed or re-sod my lawn, then I better build a fence to keep the neighbours out...

With all of that going on you think I would be full of activities for a year. Well Michelle needs to have some lights installed in her studio and by the way, it would be nice to paint the living room... Well on top of all that, today Michelle informed me that the tap for the hot water in the shower no longer works. Looks like cold showers for us... Not on your life!

Turns out the tap was striped so I headed off to Canadian Tire and bought a new tap, but of course you have to buy two cause they have to match. Also our washing machine has been leaking like crazy so I bought a couple of new hoses for that. All the while Michelle was tormenting me by needling me and poking me. Oh well.

Things seem to be looking up... nothing has broken down in the last hour, well except for one of my computers that I am trying to configure. So if you aren't busy and pretty handy, go buy a house...

The New Project

Work is really challenging. I have the opportunity to work with some really smart and passionate people. As most of you know I am working for an Insurance company in Winnipeg and I am a Project Manager. We have a couple of really great initiatives that I get the opportunity to work on.

I can’t mention the project but it is pretty substantial and will be one of the bigger ones that I have worked on. It is also a defining moment for me because the project will have a lot of visibility by the VPs and CEO of our company. The VP of Information Services said to me that he is staking his reputation on this project and that I will be running with it, so by transitive properties, that means my reputation is on the line too.

Of course with great risk there is great reward. I am really gung-ho about this project and I can’t wait to start. Right now we are still selecting product and going through some of the initiation processes.

In a couple months I will either be on top of the world or at the bottom of the barrel…

Where are you David

It has been so long it seems that I last posted on my blog. I have been so lethargic lately and it seems like I don’t have the energy to be clever and funny. I seems like I just want to go with the flow and my creativity has lost itself. So now that I have posted my excuse I guess I should share some sort of information on my life lately.

Work has been a true blessing to me. I am finding that I am getting a lot of things accomplished at the office which is more than I could have said the last 2 years of working at EPIC. I loved EPIC. I was proud of EPIC. They gave me a shot and I definitely wouldn’t be here in my position today if it wasn’t for them. But as the years went on, I say every wart that the company had. I was very frustrated with the fact that it was more like a college dorm than a work place. I am finally working with the grownups now.

So work is going good and I am getting increasing responsibility. Another great thing in my life is my wife. She is awesome. I know that most of you that read this blog know Michelle, and probably think she is pretty cool, but I see a side of her that no one else knows. Not here parents, not her brothers, just me, and that is awesome. She is such an amazing mate. It sounds cheesy to say that, but it really is true. Sometimes I don’t know where I would be if it wasn’t for her… Mind you, she reminds me of that too.

Church is the one area that I am not totally satisfied in right now, and I am not sure that it really Church that is the problem. I don’t seem very motivated. I read an article on a friends blog and it was very interesting. I didn’t exactly agree with everything the writer had to say but it was definitely interesting. I have been feeling like I am not being fed and this article was talking about sometimes you need to feed yourself.

Check out the article at: http://www.xanga.com/agapetos7

I don’t think that I am not being fed because of anything the church is doing or not doing, I rather think that it is something in me. Maybe I have a blocked passage or something…

Worth the Trip

As my lovely wife has mentioned in her blog, we had a great time in North Dakota. Grand Forks has some good stuff going on. The drive down to Grand Forks was pretty bad and my nerves were slightly frazzled. With the snow that came during the week and then the wicked wind, the roads were slightly less slippery than a spongee rink. There was at least an inch of ice covering most of the roads and just for fun there was bumps here and there. That made it really interesting because every once and a while the tires would kick out a little. In the first 10 minutes of driving out of Winnipeg we saw 6 cars / trucks in the ditch. That got Michelle in the right frame of mind...

Crossing the border was pretty painless. We had a guy that was not in a very good mood. I guess that is what they are paid for. At least we didn't have to get inspected. In total it took us 90 seconds and we were through. The roads in ND were pretty good, just blowing snow everywhere with the occasional drift.

We were pretty happy to get to the hotel.

I wasn't very thrilled with the mall in Grand Forks, matter of fact the only thing that we got there was a Pretzel. The stores kind of sucked for us. My parents were always pushing JC Penny on us, but we didn't really find anything there.

Our goldmine was found at Gordman's. It is right beside the Super Target and the best way to describe it is Winners on Steroids. The difference is that where Winners has one offs, Gordman's has the same thing in every size. I couldn't believe that they had my size in a lot of clothes. I also managed to find a pair of shoes that I like. I finally can retire my old CATS since they have a huge hole in them...

Over all the trip was really relaxing and we had a lot of fun. The food was great too... All I can say is deep fried ice cream.

On another note, Michelle has been putting the word out that I have had a little bit of a change in cut and color. So for all of you who have not seen me yet, here you go!