Commitment

I'm realizing (okay, maybe I've known for awhile) that I have commitment issues. Another way of saying that is that I'm a procrastinator in the worst sense.

Evidence point #1: my blog. I haven't updated in more than a month.

Evidence point #2: I still have benefits claims for some ancillary services from 2007 that I never submitted. It's money that belongs to me, but I just never got around to claiming it. It's always on my "to do" list, but hasn't been done yet.

Evidence point #3: My thesis. I finished my coursework last January. I still haven't really started my thesis proposal yet. That's a whole year wasted.

*sigh*

I hate this personality trait.


On another completely unrelated note, our satellite signal disappeared yesterday. Because of our schedules, the earliest we could have someone come in is tomorrow afternoon. That's a full 2.5 days without TV. Did I mention we have a 4 and 2 yr old in the house?

It's like we're on Survivor or something. My only hope is that it gets restored before LOST comes on Wednesday.

Not sure if anybody is still checking here...

I've been thinking about blogging quite a bit lately, but alas, just haven't gotten to it.

So here's a few small nutshell items for those who might pop by.

1) I didn't get the job (see below). But the guy who did (he came from Calgary) is great - we get along well, and he is helping me re-write my job description which will include a new title and raise in pay. So not all is lost.

2) Had a great trip to Florida for my conference back in November. Here's a pick of me, DW, and a couple friends with our rental car (and yes, it's a convertible):



3) I sent out my SS gift, but with this being my first time, I don't think I was secretive enough, or included enough -- I meant to send through a card, but forgot :-( I hope my giftee does enjoy the things I sent though.

4) DD was in her first ever Christmas concert recently for her pre-school. Isn't she adorable (she's in the middle in the plaid skirt)?



And not to be outdone, here is DS (who was observing the concert):



5) I had a good TV week last week. Nick and Starr won TAR. Nico won SYTYCD Canada. Then Bob wins Survivor. And then Michelle wins The Biggest Loser. That's an unprecedented 4/4 in reality series for people I wanted to win. Yay!

6) Speaking of TV, LOST starts soon. Woot!

7) There is way too much chocolate flowing into our office lately for the holidays. Wait, let me correct that. There is never too much chocolate, but there is lots of it around here.

8) I purchased some shoes the other day from DSW.com. Love 'em, and got a good deal on 'em. Any other good online retailers that you know of?

9) Just celebrated my 5-yr match with my Little Brother. He's in high-school now. *sniffle* It's incredible how quickly they grow up. *sniffle*

10) We're giving a lot of gifts (and asking others to "give" to us) charitable donations this year. One of our favourites is plancanada.ca, where you can buy everything from a pig for a family in Mozambique to the full immunization for a community in Bolivia. I love it!

Job interview

I interviewed yesterday for a promotion. I would basically be the manager in charge of my current position in addition to about 4 others (and possibly more) with a nice pay raise.

It's a position I've been lobbying for (well, a modified version) for the past three-years.

My concern is that the modifications that were made to the position (heavy emphasis on Marketing, where I only have marginal experience).

But I think I did really well in the interview (uh oh... is that the kiss of death? :-) I know 4 out of the 5 people on the interview panel quite well.

Now it's wait and see. I'm in Tampa next week for a conference, but they said it will be a couple of weeks before the process is done.

Now, I wait.

The hiatus...

...is over.

Been a hectic few weeks, with the start of school (work gets considerably busier), a trip to Newfoundland (which was awesome) and just general craziness that encompasses my life. I was going to post something more serious or deep, but let's reflect on my vacation instead. We went for 2 weeks. I could have stayed for many more.

IMHO, if you ever get the opportunity to go to St. John's, Newfoundland? Go.

An amazing city in an amazing place.

Here's a beautiful girl overlooking a beautiful harbour:


A view of "The Battery" in St. John's


One of my artsy-fartsy landscape shots:


The lighthouse at Cape Spear, the most easterly-point in North America


A salt-box house overlooking the ocean


Fishing boats at Petty Harbour just outside of St. John's


A real-life moose that I saw on the side of the highway

Woot!

I just found out I'm going to a conference in Tampa in November. Woot!

In other news, my 3-yr-old daughter informed me she was going (either visiting or moving -- not sure) to a place called Hawati. I asked her what it was like there.

She said "very sunny and hot....and there are polar bears."

I fear my DD is going to visit the passengers of Oceanic flight 815.

Things I love...

Riding my bike

Adventures with my kids



Travelling

Chocolate-chip cookies

Brownies

NFL football

Nice legs on a woman

A good rock song

The Amazing Race

Lost

Playing my guitar

Coca-cola (I was gonna say Coke, but didn't want to mislead anyone)

Beaches --> as in sand and surf, not the movie

Plants and flowers around the house

Meeting bloggy peeps, especially Glowie :-)

Adventures in Pittsburgh

We had a GREAT time in Pittsburgh last week.

We drove up Tuesday, arriving at our hotel around 3 p.m. It was about a 5-hr drive, and the kids handled it
very well. DD was thrilled at the thought of her first hotel stay.

We took the hotel's complimentary shuttle to PNC Park where we met with emydi to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates play the Cincinnati Reds. It was the kids' first baseball game, and they did great (considering they had sat in the van earlier in the day). Both kids were dressed like pirates (pics to come). We left around the 7th inning as they were starting to get tired, the Pirates were losing, and we wanted to make sure we could get out to the shuttle before the throngs of other people left.

On Wednesday, we headed to the Pittsburgh Zoo! It was a great facility (although much busier than we anticipated). The kids loved seeing all the animals, and DS solidified the tiger as his favourite animal (he even added it to his vocabulary). DD loved the flamingoes ("because they're pink!"). They also have a cool tunnel that you can go through that runs beneath the pool in the polar bear facility (similar to one we went to at Atlantis in the Bahamas). We were in there when one jumped in the water and swam right over top of us. Very cool.

Wednesday night, we met up with Glow and her hubby. They were sweet enough to bring along a little gift for DD, and they instantly became best friends. DD affectionately called her "Glow-in-the-dark." We again took the shuttle over to Station Square, a hip little place along the river. Had dinner at Houlihan's, and then took in the fountain show until DD convinced us that we had to leave because the water was going up too high (she was getting very tired at this point).

She sat beside Glow-in-the-dark on the way back to the hotel and talked her ear off :-)

Thursday, we left around 10 a.m., drove past Mario Lemieux and a bunch of big-wigs doing the ground-breaking for the new arena downtown, and headed to the Grove City Outlet Mall. Not too many good deals to be had, but I picked up a couple pairs of nice pants.

On the way home I started feeling a bit under the weather. Ended up in bed the next 3 (beautiful weather-wise) days with what I believe to be strep throat. Yay.

But feeling better now. When it's raining.

Random stuff...

1) Still no decision on the re-branding. Still wavering on "Hot_biker_dude" :-)

2) We're going to Pittsburgh tomorrow for our only mini summer vacation. We're driving down tomorrow, going to a Pirates game with emydi (the kids have their pirate costumes all set to go). On Wednesday we are going to the Pittsburgh Zoo (as inspired by Jon and Kate plus 8) and hopefully dinner with Glow. On Thursday, we drive home, with a brief stop at the Grove City Outlet Mall, where we'll likely drop a good portion of our net worth. It'll be our first overnight road trip with both kids (now 3.5 and 1.5).... so it should be a good run up to our Newfoundland trip next month.

3) Apparently, the gods have smiled on me, as my Blackberry just up and stopped working yesterday. It's been shipped off for repair, so now I have no tie to the office while I'm gone :-)

4) I am addicted to the Olympics. I watch them every chance I get.

5) I am sick of the rain here. We have had the wettest summer on record this year.

6) I have had a sore wrist for a couple months now (I hurt it when I wiped out on my bike awhile back. I also had surgery on it last year). I'm going to see the doctor on Friday to see what's up.

Be good while I'm gone!

Rebranding

I need to move away from the Meemo name here in blogland, simply because my gmail account is being used for professional purposes now (including a blog related to work).

So I need to move away from the Meemo name (which, as some of you know, does not make me sad in the least).

I don't necessarily want to use my real name, but a pseudonym of sorts maybe using my initials KJG or a variation thereof. Like KJ Sands (because I like the beach :-)

I'm open to suggestions (as I don't have anything carved in stone).

Thoughts?

If...

....there is one or more people on your friends list who make your world a better place just because they exist, and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the Internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

As per Glowie's suggestion.

Couldn't think of a better way to reflect on my birthday (34 today) how great my bloggy/OT friends are.

*smooch* to anyone who happens by here.

I'm a travel-ing man, done a lot of traveling.... all over the world

I love to travel... even if it puts me in debt :-) Well, maybe not that much.

We're taking the kids to Newfoundland in September for two weeks. I've never been before, but my wife's cousin is getting married so we thought it would be a good excuse to go out there.

We also have some good friends who moved out there last year that we're dying to see, so it should be lots of fun.

And we're already planning for a January trip to the Bahamas.

Other than the Bahamas, I'm trying to plan to visit places I've never been before. In 2010, we're hoping to go out west to Calgary, Banff and out to Vancouver.

So what is your next dream trip? Do you like to travel?

I love summer time....

Maybe I'll make this a list...

1) I have been very active this summer.... what with my past escapades including the Lake to Lake and my Try-a-Tri that I've already posted about.

Next up is our local Dragon-boat races. I've done them the past four years, and it's more fun than anything, but an intense work-out during the 3-minute races :-)

2) I was out for a bike ride last night and had my first real spill of the year (not bad, considering the number of times I've been out already). I clipped a tree while going downhill at a pretty good pace. Twisted my front wheel and went over the handlebars and down an embankment, landing at the base of a tree. I'm ok, just have a sore wrist and back today, and some war-wounds to show off. Lucky nothing was broken.

3) On a related note, I've never had a broken bone before. I cringe at the thought of it, so I'd likely pass out if I ever did. Guess I should limit the opportunities for something like that to happen :-)

4) My birthday is coming up in a couple weeks, and frankly, I can't think of a single thing that I want. I guess that's what they call contentment. My FIL, OTOH (how you like them acronyms), wants tickets to see the Miami Dolphins play the Buffalo Bills for his 60th coming up. I'm going to try and accommodate him.

5) I'm eating carrots and celery for a snack right now. I guess that's better than a chocolate bar, right? But I'd rather be eating the chocolate bar.

Because everyone else is doing it...

.. and I need a new post

That Marriage Thing


1. What date is your anniversary? October 25, 1997.

2. Where did you get married? In the church we currently attend, St. Catharines, Ontario

3. Who proposed and how? I did. DW won a trip for two to backpack across Europe from a Toronto radio station. She wisely chose me (her boyfriend of four years). I brought the ring with me, and proposed to her in Lucerne, Switzerland (about a week into the trip). That's really more romantic than it sounds, because the actual setting was at a "camp" ground where we were staying, and she had recently come back from the shower so her hair was still wet.

4. How long were you engaged? Just over a year.

5. What was your favorite part of your wedding day (and it can't be your husband)? We rented a red double-decker bus to get the whole wedding party from the ceremony to the reception.

6. What would you change if you could? Hmm.... not much. Well, the guys did have walking sticks that came with their tuxes. It took about 10 minutes before they started whacking each other in the back of the legs with them and sword-fights broke out. So I probably would have nixed them.

7. What were your wedding colors? Black tuxes, purple bridesmaid dresses.

8. Remember anything special about your wedding ceremony? When we kissed, I lifted up my leg a la Mike Myers in So I Married an Axe Murderer.

9. Were you clean or messy when you cut your cake? Clean. We're Canadian, eh!

10. Where did you go on your honeymoon? Spent our wedding night at the Sheraton Fallsview in Niagara Falls, and then took off to Varadero, Cuba for seven days of sand and sun.

As if I wasn't dumb enough....

Yesterday I put myself through our second annual Try-a-Tri.

Tri as in Triathlon.

Yup, I punished myself through a 100m swim, a 12.4 km bike ride, and a 3.1 km run. Just so no one is confused, I'm not a super-athlete... in fact I do these things to remind me how out-of-shape I am lol.

The field of 20 competitors this year was much stronger than last year (there was one guy who has done the Ironman in Hawaii). So I was just hoping to not come last.... I came third last :-)

I did improve on my time from last year, but not as much as I had hoped. Then again, considering I can't swim, I should just be thankful I didn't drown.....

Here's a pic of me wrapping up the bike leg. Notice the guy behind me about to finish his run and the race.



Oh well, I'll get them next year, right? :-)

I did it...

4 cities..... 54 kilometres..... 3hours, 51 minutes.... and several pounds of mud... I finished the 10th annual Great Lake to Lake race!

The mountain-biking race was definitely the most physically-challenging thing I have ever done. This was no leisure ride or street race.... it was all rough-terrain, off-road, mud-up-to-your-eyeballs technical riding between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. More than 100 people did not finish the race due to bike breakdowns, dehydration, cramping, and in some cases, broken bones.

Around the 30 km mark, my left quadriceps seized up, and I had to take nearly a half-hour to get it loosened up again before continuing.... and I definitely was in rough shape after that, moving along much slower than I had previously.

I also ran out of water with about 10 km left -- but persevered to the end. It was a great feeling to finish.

Here is a pic of me at the start... just ignore the spandex shorts :-) I was so muddy at the end of the race, you wouldn't have recognized me.

All in all, a great Father's Day.

This and that...

I figured it was time for an update... nothing of signifcance, but an update nonetheless.

1. A week-and-a-half ago I got an email from the Exec. Search company about the Tampa job. It was basically a written interview... about 12 different questions ranging from

• What are the five most important projects you have worked on? Either on your own or with other people?

to

• Given your years of experience and the success that you have enjoyed in your work, please expand on why you believe you are well suited for this position?


So pretty in depth stuff. I assume there using this process to short list candidates before passing them on to the organization. They told me previously that it was almost a sure thing that they'd be passing mine along anyways, given my depth of experience. I'll let you know how things go.

2. I got a tune-up on my bike this week, and then proceeded to do a 15 km ride on some very tricky trails with my friends. It was a technical ride, and I was told it was much more difficult than the 52 km route I'll be riding in a couple of weeks.

3. Ultimate frisbee started again last night! And I'm not too sore today!

4. My boss is moving from the office directly next to me up 12 floors today. This is a good thing.

5. My cousin is getting married this weekend in Ottawa. I haven't seen any of my dad's side of the family in about 7 years, so it will be nice to catch up. Which leads to...

6. As a result of the wedding, I'm taking tomorrow (and Monday) off, which makes three long-weekends in a row. Which leads to...

7. The bad news? My boss is also going to be in Ottawa this weekend for a conference. Staying at THE.SAME.HOTEL. Hopefully, run-ins will be kept to a minimum. Which leads to....

8.I got a great deal on the hotel using Priceline.com This is the second time I've used it (the other time when we went to Pittsburgh *waves to Glowie*) and I've been very happy with the results both times. We saved about 50 per cent off of the book rates.

9.This list is starting to look like Boo's list from earlier in the week, isn't it? I better stop there then. :-)

Considering change

As I mentioned at the other place, I am officially keeping my eyes open for other positions.

There really aren't any opportunities in my immediate geographic area, so it means moving to Toronto (no thanks) or out of province.

If I have to move that far away, my preference (always has been) to move south. I am not happy living in the extreme climates of Canada, and think I would be much happier in a more temperate climate.

So I've applied to a couple of positions this week -- one in Tennessee, the other in south Florida (Tampa). I got a call the next day from the exec. search company doing the Tampa hire, and they seemed very interested in my cv and experience -- considering the position is a step up for me, and a good $15-30,000 more than I'm making now. There were some questions about my visa eligibility, but since most of these positions are in academia, they have a lot of experience in bringing in foreigners for work :-)

We'll see what happens. I love change, but something this major does scare the sh!t out of me - the thought of relocating my family, leaving behind both sets of grandparents. But there's a part of me that thinks we only have one life to live -- why not take chances, be where you are truly happy, and don't be confined by tradition for the sake of tradition.

Things are still very preliminary, but I figure if there's even a slim chance of something happening, I have to start preparing.

I bought a bike....

Some friends of mine are pretty heavily into mountain biking.

So I decided to take the plunge and buy a new (well, used) bike to help keep me in shape.

We have some great trails around here (despite being in the city), and I have to say: I. LOVE. IT. Been out twice this week, and hope to get out at least once a week for the summer.

Here's a pic of my bike. It's a Trek 4300 for anybody who might care:




Some of you may remember I did a mini-triathlon last year. This year, my goal is the Lake 2 Lake Classic bike race. It's a 52 km mountain-bike race from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. I think I might be slightly delusional in thinking I can do it, but hey, I have 6 weeks to train :-)

Be jealous...

Be very, very jealous....

I got to hug our very own Lightsy on Saturday :-)

More details (and pics) to come (likely at that other place or on her blog).

Sad story...

Just a warning for those who don't want to read about a heart-breaking situation...

A very close friend of mine - someone I considered to be a big sister, who I have known for my entire life - was found dead nearly two weeks ago - initially ruled a sudden death - at the age of 44.

Five days later, her husband was charged with first-degree murder. This has shaken my family to the core, as we have known this family for many years - spent Christmases together, participated in weddings and shared in births. They were extended family - and the cliche of "the last people you would ever expect this to happen to."

They leave behind a six-year-old and an eight-year-old. They lost their mother to murder, and their father to prison. The only immediate family they have are their grandparents, who are (although very active) in their late '70s.

Their community (they now live about 1 hr from here) are rallying behind them, but there are some long-term questions that still need to be answered. The kids are coping remarkably well (their mother was an angel who poured her life into them), but their care is up in the air. My brother and his wife are the godparents, but no decisions have been made at this point.

So I haven't been around much lately. We're slowly coming to grips with things, but your thoughts and prayers for those kids are much appreciated.