Friend suggested that we rent a car and take a road trip to Kingston and Ottawa a while ago, so on Friday, he got the Yaris and Saturday morning we took off to Kingston. It must be said that the Yaris is a ridiculously tiny car and I still hate that centered dashboard design. Keeping an eye on the meter is hard when I have to look to the side.

Got to Kingston at around 4:30 on Saturday, and met up with a friend of my friend's. He kindly showed us his workplace and we checked out the Queen's campus. Their library is just amazing. UW only wishes it had the funding for a library like that. After the Queen's mini-tour, went to dinner at a place called Lone Star, some country/Texas-themed restaurant. Had one of the most steak-gasmic filet mignons ever. After that, checked into a hotel. Unfortunately, we'd forgotten that Saturday was Valentine's Day. We did realize it later at night, however, when we also discovered how thin the walls in the hotel room were. I'll leave the rest of that one to the imagination.

The next morning, had 'brunch', bummed around, and then headed off to Ottawa. Oddly it felt longer going from Kingston to Ottawa than it did going from Toronto to Kingston, even though technically the distance from TO to Kingston is a lot longer. Anyway, got there pretty late at night, so checked into the hotel and then went out for dinner. Drove around a bit and looped around Parliament really quickly. It's a lot smaller than I thought it would be.

Monday afternoon, met up with another friend who lives in Ottawa, and he took us to the Canal for some skating. Beaver Tails are pretty good, I must say. Following Canal-skating, went to the Museum of Civilization in Hull. The exhibits are very nicely done. After the museum trip, we got a 30-minute quick-tour of Ottawa. Saw the PM's house and the Governor-General's house, and some other places.

On the drive back, unfortunately ran into a most unfortunate situation that couldn't be avoided. It may haunt me for a long time now.

Forgot to get cake after dinner. =( Oh well.

Went to Waterloo last weekend for doctor's appointment. Brought back the water distiller for Fish but came back to Richmond Hill and found him unfortunately...well, sushi. It's a shame he had to die alone. Was going to change the water for him too. ='(

RIP Fish (a.k.a. Sushi, a.k.a. Sir Rupert Nightlight).
2006-2009
A quiet companion who thrived even in the most dire of conditions.

Probably won't be getting another fish. Kind of want a cute and fluffy pet now instead that I can cuddle and curl up with. My jealousy of Ryn is quite rampant at current.

In other news, the same day I came back and found Fish afloat, my new monitor arrived! Guess it's a trade-off of sorts. Still haven't tried out the TV tuner or anything besides the VGA, but it is quite a beautiful sight. Will have to ask landlady if I can rip up the staples holding down the TV cable and try it out. Getting the Wii component cable this weekend, too. More updates once that is tested.

This post is long overdue. What better time to write it than when procrastinating PDEng?

So the new place isn't exactly an apartment, but all the other "What I Hate About My Apartment" posts are under that label so it'll be left that way. It's actually one room in a pretty large house in Richmond Hill. Unfortunately discovered that not only are there 4 people living upstairs (including myself), there are also about 3-4 in the basement as well. Let's not forget the multitude of cats that are always wandering around. To be honest, half the time I don't know how many cats the landlady actually owns. Pretty sure a few of them are random neighbourhood cats that find their way in, though.

And dear lord, those cats are disgusting. One would assume that cats would be cleaner than dogs, yet every time I venture downstairs, I'm greeted by the pungent stench of what I can only assume to be a mixture of feline vomit, feces, and urine. One time I'm pretty sure I saw two small puddles of different shades of poopiness around the laundry room. It reeked like no tomorrow. Pretty sure one or more of the cats got sick and either vomited or had diarrhea. Later found out that the litter box is actually wedged in between the washer and the dryer in the laundry room. Go figure.

The landlady's room is across the hall from mine, and down the hall is one of the other co-ops from UW, and further down the hall, closest to the bathroom, is a relative of the landlady's. Was very peeved to find out that this upper floor of the house is incredibly quiet due to the fact that said landlady's relative apparently turns in at around 8pm at night. That means tiptoeing to the bathroom and having to brush my teeth as quietly as possible. Actually, I'm pretty sure I've woken up the landlady several times when I went to the bathroom.

Last night, was greeted online by one of them Rogers "you used up all your bandwidth pirating crap, now you gotta pay extra for every GB of transfer" pages. Turns out there's only 60GB of bandwidth for the entire place. That's me and the other co-op dude down the hall, and the 3-4 people downstairs whom I can only assume also use the internet. It's pushing it, if you ask me. With how much money she probably rakes in from so many people renting rooms, I'd think the landlady would at least bother to get the Rogers Internet that's got a little more bandwidth. Whatever. At least they don't cut people off anymore.

There is one saving grace of this place, though. It's only a 15 minute walk from work, which means I don't need to spend another $100+ per month on a bus pass. It does hurt to walk what with these constant snowfalls and feels-like-less-than-20 temperatures, but we endure. Oh, and the Chinese supermarket and bakery is only 5 minutes away. Sure to be my doom by the end of the term when I discover I've gained 20 pounds.

Happy Lunar New Year. =)

A day late but that's okay...

Successfully moved into a new place in Richmond Hill for the start of my 5th work term. When it's put that way, it seems kind of scary, how many jobs I've had already. It's not quite over yet, either. Hopefully this one will make writing the work report a lot easier than it was the last two times.

Renting a room in a house with several other people. It's a nice and quiet neighbourhood which is good, but the bad part is that it's winter and getting to the main street will be difficult. Walking to work won't be a piece of cake, either, but I guess it'll be a good workout. Just wish there could be more melting of snow and less piling of snow. And no flooding like back in Vancouver.

Got a cold a few days ago which, mixed with my cat allergies (3 in the house that I could count), means death for my nose. Can't tell which is worse at the time, but I can say frankly that it sucks quite a bit. Been here half a day and already the garbage can is half filled with tissues. Gross. This better be gone by the time I start work on Friday.

Happy new year! Let's hope that 2009 doesn't suck as badly as 2008. Come on, economy! You can do it! I believe in you! Sort of.

Whistler was great fun. Lots of snow while we were there. Thankfully not horrendously cold. Got massive blisters on my heels though so couldn't go on the last day. It was all good anyway since we walked around the village and looked around. Had a $60 fondue dinner while we were up there, too. Possibly the most expensive dinner I've had that I paid for myself.

The drive up there was quite perilous and quite...slow. 10 kph on some stretches of the Sea to Sky. Honestly, it wasn't even bad enough that we had to put on tire chains, yet some people are just too overly cautious. Thankfully it rained a little while we were up on the mountain so the drive down was pretty good except when we were swerving around on ice for a good 10 seconds just out of Squamish. We had a good driver though so we made it alive. Hehe.

And now that it is all done and gone, I wish we could have stayed up there a little longer. Just to be able to relax. But I guess I really am too poor for that...

It's ironic that our snowboarding trips were canceled due to snowfall. But alas, Vancouver has not the ability to facilitate for such a wintry storm. Bet the city councils are wishing they'd invested in a couple more snowploughs and a few extra tons of salt now.

Despite not being able to snowboard yet due to terrible road conditions (Cypress and Baker fail), it does look quite nice outside, if not a little overladen with snow. The first white Christmas that I can remember. Definitely the first time that the snow has piled up this high and continued to drift down in over twenty years. Probably comes up to my knees or even my thighs out on the front lawn. Could make my own bunny hill by piling up snow from the driveway and just boarding down it. Hmm...

Regardless of it all, I suppose it does make things a little more festive. Somewhat.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Tried and failed to watch Quantum of Solace three times this weekend. Quite disappointing.

Friday night, friend from Toronto came down to visit. We told him to meet up with us at the movie theater. He got there first somehow and called us, saying, "Abort mission! All shows sold out for the evening." Talk about a kick in the nuts. Ended up just going to McD's for ice cream and then headed back home.

Woke up late Saturday afternoon, but then roommate and friend said, "Let's go see Bond! We have to leave now." Tried to leave as quickly as possible, but barely missed the bus. Too lazy to wait for the next one so we decided to pass the 4:00 show and just go for the 6:50 show instead.

Left the apartment at 5:50 and went to the bus stop. It started slushing quite hard. We made an impromptu shelter out of our four umbrellas, which actually worked very well. Bus was ridiculously late so we ended up calling a cab instead. Got to the theater, went inside, and what do you know, all shows sold out yet again. Really should have bought advance tickets. After that, we walked outside through the slushy weather and just went to Kelsey's.

And I still have yet to see Quantum of Solace...

The heater is busted. It just blows cold air everywhere. If we leave it on for a couple hours, it starts to make a really loud and high-pitched grinding noise. The repair guy apparently came to the building to fix some other people's heaters too but we didn't know about this so it might be a while before anything is done about it.

Meanwhile we sit here in the 66F apartment loaded under sweaters or blankets. If we didn't pay for electricity, I'd turn on the oven to heat up the place.

Update: Landlord came by in the late afternoon. Now the apartment is at a comfortable temperature. =)

Went out to buy discounted Halloween candy yesterday. What happened to all the good stuff? It was ridiculously hard to find any of the brand-name stuff in larger packages.

They put out candy canes and advent calendars already. Guess there's no break between holidays for retailers.