Let's Prance to the New Job Dance!

I figured I had to write because I have wonderful news. After applying for a couple of jobs at the University of Victoria, I am proud to announce that I have finally been offered employment there!

I will be working for the Office of Indigenous Affairs on UVic campus. Which is a five minute walk from the apartment!! I start there on March 31st, and I am really looking forward to it.

More good news is that Greg (my brother) has also moved out west. He arrived on Monday the 10th of March; and he started working on Wednesday the 12th of March. We are very excited that he has decided to join us out here on the island. And we are now encouraging him to search for an apartment, so that he can vacate the kitchen floor. :D

So this is a short blog, just letting everyone know that good things are happening out West. And well we'll keep enjoying the warm weather, and we can hope that everyone out east will get more sun soon to melt all the snow! MAHA!

A tale from the frozen city

Winter doesn't exist in Victoria and there are a number of signs that point toward winter's non-existence. (I do mean non-existence as opposed to, ummm, absence. If something is absent then at some point, either in the past or future, it will be present. Winter has no chance of that.) So, here's my list:

- My coaching season is over because my team lost in the first round of the playoffs. Playoffs that started at the beginning of February.
- Lacross has started; the first try-outs were last week. Lacross is a "summer" sport in Victoria.
- The rose bushes are growing little green leaves.
- Zero degrees C is cold for the locals. I imagine by next year Veronica and I will consider zero cold.

For all those non-believers, here's the ultimate proof. About three weeks ago, it snowed less than a centimeter. Now, I realize that I'm frequently a liar, a cheat and fundamentally evil, but I promise that it snowed less than a centimeter. (Upon reflection it was more like hail. The meteorological conditions are quite different.) On this fine day, Veronica and I were hiking in Thetis park. We were catching the hail with our gloves, while petting prancing unicorns. (I must admit the unicorns weren't prancing.)

Since only Veronica could see the unicorns, it was exceptionally difficult to ride them home. I mean, they didn't exist; or not enough for the commute between the park and our castle. Having driven the car along the speedy autobahn to the park, it was more than acceptable to drive our pink Porche (don't let girls choose car colours) back along the same route. Never in our wildest dreams (note: we have fairly wild dreams considering Veronica can see unicorns that don't exist, during the day and while awake) could we imagine the chaos and fear waiting for us on the highway. Everything was motionless. The cars and trucks stood still. The rabbits grazing along the side of the highway watched the chaos, while drinking a beer. People stopped under the overpass to hide from the snow and treacherous roads. We took pictures of this Victoria zoo - arrr, come see the primate enclosure laddie.

The driving became worse and the story becomes better. Between the highway and our castle is a stretch of road that, God forbid, isn't perfectly flat. If you're from Victoria and you start your car from a stationary position, while on a hill, then you must, I believe by law, press on the gas peddle in such a manner to make your wheels spin. I can only conclude that this is a Victoria bylaw because not only will every driver of every car do this once, but the drivers will repeat the same behaviour. If "peddle-to-the-metal" didn't work the first ten times, now why, I say why (think Samity Sam), would it work the 11th. Of course, silly me! By the sixth time the weather should have changed - the snow should have melted, the clouds should have parted, and a thousand angels should be singing in the beautiful blue sky.

I think I'll buy a video camera for next winter.

Neil is a Jackass

Hello Everyone,

I must say that not everything Neil says is true...
I have gotten a tattoo, but we have not eloped. Hence, why he is Evil Neil.

I promise to let you all know when we get engaged. :)

But do remember that Evil Neil is a jackass!! :)

Nothing new

Well, I don't have much to say. Veronica's life is more exciting than mine but she doesn't know how to blog. So you have to read my blog post instead (quick stop now).

I'm taking two classes and a half this semester. The half-class is a linguistics course. I attend the linguistics class' lectures and absorb as much as I can, that's it. This should give me a better understanding of natural language processing, since natural language processing is built upon linguistic concepts. I am, of course, still researching and pretending to work.

My hockey team is starting playoffs (I'm coaching for those who don't know). In other words, the season is almost over. From my perspective, this isn't such a bad thing since I can't coach from behind the bench. There was this administrative, what do they call it, miscommunication and consequently I'm stuck in the stands.

Last but not least, Veronica and I eloped last week.

Back to school

This holiday season passed in three episodes. First, Greg (Veronica's brother) travelled all the way from Montreal to use our high-speed Internet connection. During the brief periods in between his web surfing, we managed to visit Stanley park, the Vancouver aquarium, the Science museum thing and some other stuff. Shortly after he left, I left to coach my hockey team in their Vancouver tournament. The most interesting episode occurred upon my return - Veronica was branded. I mean, that darling wonderful girl, got a tattoo (below).

Small comment

Why is it? Why is it that only when the dishes are pilled high and the apartment needs to be cleaned, that Veronica becomes sick? Why is it that Veronica gets morphine and I get a pile of dishes? Why is it that the cat needs to go outside more often when Veronica's sick? Oh right. Of course, the cat's trying to escape from Veronica. But, why the rest? Just a thought.

Always the first.....

So nothing exciting has been happening here lately, which is why we haven't been blogging. And Neil actually pointed that out to Joan the other day. So I guess I decided that I felt the need to blog, and therefore something "exciting" happened. Well not really exciting, but at least something worth telling people about.

Yesterday morning (Dec. 11th); and I will quickly mention that it is incredibly green here; I woke up with horrible pains in my stomach. I got up, fed the cat, went to the washroom and went back to bed, feeling a bit better. And then I got up to go to work, and those pains were back. So I took a hot shower and went to work (8am).

Taking the bus, when you are not feeling 100% is always an interesting experience. I tried to not look like I was in pain. And so I was concentrating on my ipod. I especially started to concentrate on it when it crapped out on me, and decided to stop working!!!

Needless to say, I was slightly pissed off. But there are never two without three right?! Well, I got to work; by this point I had decided that I was doing payroll and then going to the hospital; well I signed into my computer, only to discover that my profile was not being found. I don't know where it was, but it was not to be found! And I needed my profile to do payroll, for a number of reasons, but anyways... I had to wait around while the IT guys fixed it. So I ended up getting to the hospital at 11am.

By this point in time I was doubled over in pain, but very calm; the staff at the Vic General are great! I sat down in the waiting room for 2 mins, and there was someone there to come and get me. They wanted to take blood for tests, and they had already gotten urine for other tests.

By this point Neil has arrived. Two people from work had taken me to the hospital. And as soon as Neil arrives in comes the nurse to get me. Funny enough, Neil shares an office with a guy named Jeff, Jeff's girlfriend is a nurse, and her name is Paulina. So Paulina, my nurse brings me out back, I get to put on one of those wonderful blue backless jobbies... and so the fun begins.

They give me my exam, and decide that they are going to give me an ultrasound to find out if it is my appendix. Well in order to do this, they decide that they need to dull my pain. So they hook me up to an IV and give me some gravol and morphine. This is how I spent my day, doped up to feel no pain.

And so in the end, my appendix decided to stay hidden; which apparently is a good thing; and I went home. However, if I am in any pain today I am to go back.

So everyone wish me no pain!!!

Oh, and Greg gets here on Monday night, so we should have stuff to write about then too. :D