Just a quick hello...

I just wanted to say a quick hello to everyone and apologise that I've not posted much lately... it's been a b!tch here at work and home life has been hectic... actually, hectic might be a slight understatement. It's all good stuff though... hockey, cubs, Marie's music stuff, general family activities, auxiliary events... work has been crazy busy which I like on one hand 'cause time flies by but on the other hand, it can start to feel like I'm barely keepin' my head above water...

I think that one of the people that has been feelin' my "absence" the most is Jim... Jim really is like a brother to me and I wish I could hang out more with him but the reality is my days are long and the things/people requiring my attention are many right now. I'm tryin' to figure out what the new routine is and once I get that down I can figure out what's left for my down time... I know down time is important so I will make space for it...

Anyway, I've managed to read a few blogs entries here and there and I hope everyone is doing well... running, climbing, biking, gardening, etc...

I'm gonna run now so have a great weekend everyone!

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Victor Wooten Bass Solo Link

Check out this bass solo by Victor Wooten.

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A potentially good site...

I haven't looked at it yet but this website looks like it might be a good information source... I know that new computers come with Windows Vista but I've used a laptop that was running Vista and because of that experience I intend to stay on XP as long as possible!...

How To's for Windows XP

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Do you know Jesus? I do...

well, at least I must if he's sending me e-mail. Yes, you read that right, Jesus sent ME e-mail. Isn't that AWESOME!?

What? Ya don't believe me?

Fine, I'll prove it. Here's a partial screen capture of my spam folder in gmail.



I know what yer askin'... why do I have Jesus on my spammer list? Well I don't, gmail put him there automatically. Now I hafta say I'm relieved that Jesus is runnin' an on-line pharmacy. I was gettin' a little self conscious of my um... manhood 'cause I keep gettin' all these e-mails tryin' to set me up with enlargement devices and such. I finally realized that it was just scum bags tryin' to make a quick buck but if it had been Jesus sendin' those e-mails... that's a different story... I may have had to take it seriously... I mean, come on, if Jesus says yer too small, he's prolly tellin' the truth, right? Jesus wouldn't say something that wasn't true and for that matter, he wouldn't lie would he.

Hmm... I just had a thought, what if Jesus' pharmacy sells the big blue pill? Damnit! Maybe Jesus IS tryin' to tell me sommit... Now I'm back to feelin' less than capable! Geeeez. I'm gettin' back to work, it's less depressing.

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Another good source for office suites...

Jim commented on my post about Zoho reminding me of another good source for office suite software:

Another alternative to office that is perfect for the average user...
www.openoffice.org

OpenOffice.org is a great alternative to MS offerings. It gives you apps that you can download to your hard drive. I've used it back when I was running a Linux machine at home. The thing I liked about Zoho was the fact it was on-line and available from any internet connected machine (and was free too).

Well, I'm going to my best man's wedding this weekend... a casual event at Balzac's Coffee. On Sunday I'm helping out at the local Terry Fox Run which should be good. I'm not sure what else is going on. If you have a moment, let me know what you're doin'... last time I asked, only Suki responded and she said she couldn't remember 'cause she was so fall-down drunk... KIDDING! She did say that alcohol WAS NOT involved but she still couldn't remember what she did.

(note: HA! HA! I googled "stumbling drunk" and a picture of Tara Reid came up! Now that there says something about yer reputation! Oh, and, no... I can't post the picture. ;) )

I do know that Jim is running in the Terry Fox Run and then walkin' in it with his family.

Anyway, the weather is supposed to be partly cloudy and the temps seasonal so it should be a good weekend to be out and about in the Greater Newcastle Area. I hope the weather is good in your area and I hope you get out and about too!

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!

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Good riddance MS Office licensing?

You have GOT to check ZOHO out! What's ZOHO you may ask... well here's what the FAQ says:

Zoho is a suite of web services offered by AdventNet. The different web services can be accessed with just a browser & an internet connection. The best part is you don't require to install any software on your computer.

I think this is really cool. Now, I haven't tested it extensively so I don't know what, if any, the shortcomings are. I will say that the idea of a free office suite is way cool. I've always struggled with the price Microsoft charges for their software and this seems to be a good replacement. I'm gonna try it out whenever I can and if I remember, I'll provide some feedback in the future. (I know, I'm not good at the follow up posts so I settin' the bar low here... :) )

Anyway, I stumbled on this when I was researching something over at TechRepublic and I had to share it with y'all.

If you try it out, let me know what you think.

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So I signed the boys up for Wolf Cubs

Boy are they excited! I have to admit that I'm pretty excited too... I'm lookin' forward to doing all the neat things that Cubs do... camping, hiking, learning how to tie knots, helping them earn badges. It is expensive though; $140 each, plus about about $60 minimum each for uniforms. I don't have to pay for my training but I do have to pay for my police check (that's kinda funny given the fact that I have police ID eh?) and I assume I hafta pay for my own uniform which will be slight more than $60. Oh well, it's gonna be worth it since I'll be creating memories for the boys and helping shape a part of their life experience that will stay with them forever. I still remember a lot of what I did in cubs and scouts and I would say that I use quite a bit of what I learned back then on a regular basis today.

Well, I've got a lot of meetings today at work so I'm gonna go prepare for them now. I hope everyone has a great day!

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What's my name?

Jim asked if I'd given any thought to what my "name" would be as a cub leader. Since the leader's names are based on the Jungle Book characters, I took a look at all of them and I think that the character that best fits me would be this one:

For a number of reasons, all of which may be evident to those that know me, I think Baloo is the name I'm gonna be shootin' fer. I hope I can get it! :)

Anyway, it's gonna be a fairly busy weekend for me so I'm gonna do my best to get outta here a little early today (the boss is off today!) so I can start the weekend.

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!

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So I'm an uncle again!

My sister Eileen gave birth to a baby boy yesterday morning!

Devlin is his name and he was born at 08:45 weighing 7lbs 5oz. Eileen and Devlin are doing well and proud daddy Cornelius hasn't stopped grinning since 08:45:01 yesterday morning. :)

Eileen and Cornelius has two daughters so this will be a bit of an adjustment to the whole family. I feel for Devlin, I only had two "moms" growing up (my mom and my sister!)... poor Devlin has four (my sister, my mom, and my two nieces!)... I got yer back buddy!

Since most of you may wonder about the name (okay, I wondered what the significance of the name was) I thought I'd share that with you. Before I do that though, I should share with you that Eileen and Cornelius are both interested in their Irish ancestry so that was on of the first considerations when they were picking a name. Eileen said that the name meant fierce warrior. I was unable to find reference to Devlin as a first name (although I did find it the other day but can't seem to find the link again) but it is a surname in Ireland. The Gaelic spelling seems to be "Duibhlin" or "Duibhlinn". Ya gotta love the Gaelic language eh?

I wanted to name daughter Naomh (pronounced NEEV) but Marie wouldn't hear of it. I'm okay with that now 'cause Gracie is Gracie to me and I can't imagine her having any other name.









Well, it's been extremely busy here at work and I feel like I haven't seen my friends or done anything social in a month so I'll have to change that. Jim and Tanyia came by last Friday for a few hours and that was really nice... we haven't done that in quite a while. We usually play board games when we get together, which is always a blast, but this time we just chatted and had some laughs.

Oh yeah, I forgot, we're going to a pig roast at a neighbour's house on Saturday night... we don't really know anyone except the people hosting the party so it could go either way - either I find someone that I "click" with and have some good conversation, or I don't find anyone and I spend the whole time sittin' in the corner watchin' people. I'm gonna do my best to mingle since I rarely get the opportunity to meet new people in town since I spend my time on the road between Toronto and Newcastle commuting.

The boys brought home a pamphlet about cubs and they really wanted to join. Marie and I had talked about this in the past and the only way that we would feel comfortable putting the kids in cubs is if I was a leader... so guess who's applying to be a cub leader? yep, you're lookin' at the next cub leader candidate. I think the organizer thought he'd been given a miracle 'cause the call went something like this:

Hi, Dave?

(in a kinda tired voice) Yes, this is Dave

Hi. My name is Gerry and I was looking to find out more information about signing my sons up for cubs. When is the registration and how much does it cost?

(again, in a tired voice) Registration is Monday night and the cost is $140 per child.

Okay. I was also wondering about how I would become a leader and if there are any openings for leaders... or are you just lookin' for parent volunteers from time to time?

(in a very excited voice) Oh no, we're always looking for leaders and we're in need of more leaders for the cubs since a couple of the leaders are moving on to the scouts with their sons. We pay for all your training so there's no cost to you to become a leader. You can register on Monday night when you sign you boys up. That's great. You'll just need a police background check and there'll be an screening interview... that's standard procedure.

Okay, thanks Dave, I'll see you Monday night then.

(again, in an excited voice) GREAT! See you then Gerry!

Hmmm... what have I gotten myself into...

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Just wanted to share some music...

These guys have a good sound...