Hoover's picture is now up... Send me your pet photos and I'll immortalize them here!
posted by Tom at 1:50 PM | link | (0) comments

Want to know what Google thinks of you? Check out this site...
posted by Tom at 9:19 AM | link | (0) comments

A fun, but tiring weekend... Warning: probably not terribly interesting for the layperson, unless you care about the minutia of my life.

Friday night I went with Molly and Anne to see Poochwater, a fun little play about a guy with acute amnesia, in the tiny Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace. We had a great dinner at the Left Bank first, which left my bank balance a lot lower but my blood sugar level high.

Saturday morning my parents came around. My dad brought me a lovely set of Staunton chess pieces to go with my antique chess table. After a quick game of Hostage Chess (my dad's the inventor of this wonderful chess variant game, follow the link for the rules (and he won)) he went off to his conference at the university, mum went off Christmas shopping, and Anne and I drove up to her place so she could finish her raking and I could try and undo the damage my router seems to have caused to her email.

Saturday evening we got back together with my mum and had a pizza before mum went off to see Poochwater and I fired up the laptop to do some work.

On Sunday mum and I met Anne at church. Mum finds Calvin's services refreshingly brief, since the Presbyterians don't usually celebrate communion. (And here was me bemoaning the lack of opportunities to sing masses. I guess we have different priorities...) We had lunch at the usual sushi place around the corner from the church (Sushi Garden) and then went home, from where mum and dad set off back to Guelph and Anne and I cleaned up for guests. Susan, Craig, Erika and Brian came round to watch the Lord of the Rings and feast on ring-shaped snacks.

Sunday evening we went round to Molly's for the usual suspects dinner. She cooked a wonderful rice/chicken Persian dish, and a chocolate pistachio tarte for dessert. Yum...
posted by Tom at 7:40 PM | link | (0) comments

It's nice being back in the office. Midway through the afternoon one of the partners took me aside and gave me four tickets to the Raptor's game last night, as he wasn't able to go. My clients weren't able to change their plans with such short notice, so along with Anne, I ended up taking my new "counsellee" Josh (about a month with the firm now), who brought a friend of his. The seats were great: about eight rows back from the floor, right behind one of the hoops. It was a very exciting game, and although the Raptors lost it was closely contested from beginning to end. My first time in the Air Canada Centre -- really BIG place -- and a nice way to spend a Wednesday evening.

On the work front, my workshop on Monday was a hit with the client. We covered a lot of ground, and definitely won their confidence in the rest of the work ahead. It's been a good, productive week, and I'm enjoying the project MUCH more than the last one. Feeling good...
posted by Tom at 11:54 AM | link | (0) comments

Ok, there are times when one's audience speaks, and one has to listen. From the search engine records for my site: "why don t you mention any cats". Well... I have no idea, but clearly it's time to correct that. I've got a picture, but for some reason I'm having trouble uploading it today.

My cat's name is Hoover. She's 11 years old, white with black markings, and has lovely soft magnetic fur with strong adhesive and weaving properties that floats gently through the air and then embeds itself in any form of cloth it encounters. She used to be really neurotic but has settled down quite a bit in her later years, and is generally now quite willing to come out and investigate any new people, particularly if they're the kind of people who know how to scratch a cat under the chin. She hates being picked up, but loves sitting on the newspaper (preferably on the bed) and being quietly companionable. She's pretty self-sufficient, but does get lonesome for human contact when I have to travel.

Other fine cats: Scottie, Anne's cat. Gabriel, Joyce's cat. Oliver, Robyn and Dave's cat. Molly's cat Runty. Paul and Kelly don't have a cat yet but will probably be getting on in the new year.

Not in the cat category, but my cousin Olga wanted her cat-sized dogs listed as well: Bagels and Bashti Boodle. Comments on Olga's pets names should be forwarded directly to her. Anyone else want their pet's picture posted? Send it to me!
posted by Tom at 3:34 PM | link | (0) comments

We had dinner round at Paul and Kelly's wonderful newly-renovated home yesterday. I'm deeply envious of the kitchen, in-house washer/dryer, and whirlpool tub. Easily impressed, I guess... It was lovely.

Molly was showing off her article in Canadian Business, her first time in print. I haven't had a chance to read through it yet, but it looked impressive. Crazy picture of a guy in a pink room with an orange ceiling... I think the article was about whether having a CFA designation really means something or not. Judging by the photo, it doesn't imply good colour sense.

I'm all tense today because I've got a big 5-hour workshop to run with some client executives tomorrow. I think it's going to go pretty well -- I'm fairly well-prepared for it -- but it's my first time with these guys and five hours is a hell of a long time for a first impression encounter. I'm stressing.

Tomorrow's a big day for Anne, too: her first day in her new job! She got all sorts of wonderful plaudits and gifts from her colleagues and staff in the Roy Thomson Hall/Massey Hall organization, and they threw a nice party for her on Thursday. She's a bit teary-eyed, but looking forward to starting her new work tomorrow.

I'm going to be very happy when tomorrow's over...
posted by Tom at 2:29 PM | link | (0) comments

Saturday morning started with the weekly demolition job on the Globe and Mail's Saturday cryptic crossword. This week we cruised through it in about half an hour: unlike last week (whose answer "ambushment" will forever reign in infamy) this week's had reasonable clues. After lunch I saved the world (ahem... finished playing NOLF2 on the computer..) Anne and I went down to the Exhibition Grounds to see the Royal Winter Fair. We saw horses and cows and a zee-ass (half-zebra, half-jackass) and a great chicken gulag and weird ducks with really long necks and some cute dogs and (strangest of all) lots of people dressed up in fancy clothes picking their way through the straw and dirt to the horse show. And llamas, and a couple of alpacas. It's a bit of a bizarre event, one that could only take place in Canada, with upper crusties and wanna-be upper crusties trying to look fancy despite basically being ignored by most of the crowd, who were casually dressed for serious farm activity and generally not inclined to defer to anyone, especially someone wearing a tuxedo or evening gown. We spent a few hours touring and visiting the inmate animals before scooting up to Craig and Susan's for a Calvin choir group birthday party, featuring a viewing of the Iron Chef.

Yesterday it poured rain, so Anne's leaves comprehensively failed to get raked. After church I grocery shopped (being at home now means I have to cook again) and went home to do fun & exciting domestic chores, like laundry. Anne came round and cooked us up a wonderful chicken and shallots dinner, and comprehensively demolished me at Scrabble (by like, 120 points).
posted by Tom at 7:11 PM | link | (0) comments

Quick update (no graphic today): I've been confirmed to start on another project in Toronto on Monday. Hallelujah!
posted by Tom at 5:16 PM | link | (0) comments

Freedom! My rolloff date from the Hartford project is confirmed for this Friday. Tomorrow will be my last trip on a Dash 8 (pictured) for... well, at least a couple of weeks. Actually, it looks likely my next project will be in Toronto, which I'm psyched about...

Yesterday's theatre trip to the Hartford Stage was good, though it was pretty obvious Edgardo Mine is a new play. The pacing seemed a bit awkward a couple of times, as though the cast weren't sure what to do with themselves between dramatic lines. The whole play was a single 1 1/2 hour act. I actually really enjoyed it: there was a much greater level of humour than the subject matter suggested.

By your search entries will ye be known (part deux). These are the things typed into the search engine on my site this last week (as opposed to the 10/23 entry which was entries typed into other search engines to find my site):

- 2 for "culture"
- 1 for "about a boy"
- 1 for "blackhawk down"
- 1 for "colour"
- 1 for "goulding"
- 1 for "just another indian"

Not sure about that last one.
posted by Tom at 3:33 PM | link | (0) comments

The weather here in Hartford is beautiful this week, cool but sunny. Now that I'm in my final week I'm almost (but not quite) sorry I'm wrapping up so soon. Tonight I'm going back to the Hartford Stage to see Edgardo Mine, a new play by Alfred Uhry, based on a true story about a Jewish family in Bologna in 1858 whose six-year-old son, baptised Christian, is taken into custody by the Vatican.

Only seven days until the release of the Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Edition) on DVD!
posted by Tom at 9:57 AM | link | (0) comments