Sick Day

I left work around 1pm today due to some crazy sickness that I’ve contracted. It’s probably just the common cold but it’s a doozy. While I promised myself I wouldn’t rant about work on this blog, I have to say the one thing I dislike is the pressure to show up at work when sick. Everyone is working towards very demanding deadlines, and even one day can disrupt all the key logs and dependencies that are on one’s shoulders. What usually happens is that people feel forced to work through sickness, which then gets other people sick, and makes work and life miserable for everyone. It’s a no-win situation. And to make matters worse I think I spread my diseasey ways to my girlfriend.

It’s gotten to the point where I don’t even bother taking over-the-counter remedies anymore, because they do so little. NyQuil is good for wanting to be unconcious for a whole night’s sleep but it doesn’t actually make anything better. I’m also adamantly against trendy herbal remedies, something that I know annoys my mother to no end. She’s a believer in echinacea and stuff like that, which has no conclusive proof of doing anything a sugar pill and some faith wouldn’t do instead.

So with one workday left in the week I’m wondering if it’s worth showing up tomorrow morning. I can probably buck up and work through it, but again, I’m just putting others at risk of being sick too.

Shorts day

Not only did I wear my new hiking shoes yesterday, I also wore shorts for the first time in half a year. Those pasty white toothpicks I call “legs” were exposed for all to see and admire. Such great gams.

Yesterday also marked the first real step towards homebuying. The bank told me what we can expect for a maximum mortgage and a monthly payment, and the good news is we can afford something decent. The bad news is almost anything appropriate and/or not a trailerhome in the PoCo/Coquitlam area is pretty much near or at the maximum. It really has come to the point where, if we don’t buy something in the next year, we’ll never buy a place because everything will be out of our price range. It is pretty ridiculous to be looking for “deals” on condos that are in the two hundred grr range. I guess that’s the price of living in the “wonderful” Lower Mainland. Grumble, grumble.

Happy white fluffy clouds

I can’t remember what got me looking for this today, but while chatting with Ian the topic of Almost Live! came up. Almost Live! was a show on a KING-5, which ran just before Saturday Night Live. It was by far one of my favourite shows as a teenager. I didn’t get all the local Seattle humour but it had recurring skits that I loved, most of them far superior to the crap that SNL would turn out during the same time period. Here’s one of the classics: a session with Bob Ross, the now-deceased dry brush painter who sported an afro and could put anyone to sleep with his velvety smooth voice.

My gambling problem

I have a bad habit of entering hockey pools. Currently I spend about a hundred dollars a year on them, and in my lifetime I’ve only won one pool. Naturally, it was the first I’d ever entered, so it filled me with confidence and convinced me I know what I’m doing. That was about ten years ago. Thankfully I do limit myself to the number of paid pools I enter, but I’m still dishing out a lot of money for something that I’m really not very good at.

Speaking of gambling, to celebrate my 28th birthday I plan on spending an afternoon betting on horses. The three of you who read this blog will all receive an email at some point, detailing exactly when I plan to go. I have a few cuban cigars that I will bring as well, so those who show up can enjoy a stogie and yell at the fine steeds as they lose us money on a constant basis.

Oh, I finally bought those hiking shoes I’ve been talking about. Maybe at some point I’ll take a photo of me wearing them and post it here.

This assignment is so hard.

Has it really been almost a week since I blogged? Damn. I need to be more dedicated to this. It hasn’t helped that work has been pretty much awful lately. In fact I declared this week as “Worst Week Ever” as far as work goes. Last night I downed half a bottle of wine (not real wine, that sugar-laden girly stuff) and fell asleep at 11. I’m not sure if that solved anything, but it seemed like the right thing to do.

So, it’s the long weekend, and the weather is crummy. I’m not totally sure what to do, although between myself and my lady friend I’m sure we can figure out something. This might be a good weekend to go see a movie — in a theatre! — for the first time since seeing Aeon Flux. We did stock up on booze last night, so maybe we’ll get hammered and fall asleep before 11. Or maybe I’ll go get those new shoes that I need.

On a side note, we did go to a restaraunt in Yaletown on Tuesday, called Brix. It was mostly to see if it would be a good location for a wedding reception/party, and it was. In fact it would make an awesome place for such an event. The downer? It would cost us close to ten grr. That’s a lot of money. I could buy two plasma HDTVs for that much! And plasma HDTVs are far more important than a silly wedding. So needless to say, the wedding probably won’t be there, but the food is amazing and I do plan to eat there again.

Survey says…

… I didn’t buy anything. Well, except groceries. Most of the day was spent surfing for porn and cleaning the apartment. However, on the list of meaningful accomplishments, I finished God of War. That’s on the same list as “finish college” and “donate blood”, by the way. Just very, very low on the list.