What is On Jeffs' Mind

It is nice to get out and see things, but it is always nice to come home.

Last week I was in Ottawa for some training for work. It was a nice trip, nothing eventful really happened, everything seemed to come off without a hitch. The training was interesting enough, as I took a course on Open SSO from Sun. I did not know anything about this software before I left, but have a much better idea of it now and how it fits in to the Enterprise workspace. I did reaffirm as well, that I dont think I ever want a job as a Unix Sysadmin, as the long command line commands really challenge my rather limited typing skills. I have limited knowledge of Unix, so at least it was nice to learn a bit more about it, but I think at the end of the day, I prefer working on Windows systems.

It had been a very long time since the last time I was in Ottawa, I had gone on a family vacation back in the early 80′s, so it was almost like going some place new for me. It was an interesting city, and since it is our Nations Capitol, it had a mix of really old buildings and more modern office towers. The downtown core where I stayed seemed very busy during the weekdays, the streets narrow at times, and lots of people going about their days. The evenings, in the part of downtown I was staying, it cleared out pretty fast. When I arrived on Sunday, I actually thought the town was shut down, as I walked the streets looking for a place to eat, and could not find anything. Later I learned, that just past the Parliament buildings, there was a market area with a lot of restaurants. I was able to make it over there later in the week, and it was interesting.

The first few days I found the weather a bit humid, and found myself gasping for air a few times. It probably was not all that humid, but coming from a dry place like Edmonton, I notice any little bit of humidity. The Hotel I stayed at was ok, though I am not sure if I would stay there again if I went back to Ottawa. Like most Hotels, the Lobby and reception area is very nice, but the rooms are not as nice. There were a few complaints I had about the room, as the window never really shut properly, the rooms were not very sound proof from what was outside of them, and the fan in my room never stopped running. The Internet access was really good, though probably too good as I ended up doing more work in the evenings then I had originally had planned.

I got home on Friday, and felt really nice to be home. On Saturday I went for Dim Sum with friends, and then after that Dave, Tao Tao and I went to see Surrogates. I thought the movie was ok, but nothing really overly special, the concept of the movie was interesting enough, and could see society possibly going that way. In the evening I played cards at Paul’s house. but in the end Jason won. Sunday was a nice relaxing day, I watched the F1 race from Singapore and then the last 100 laps of the Nascar race.

It is nice to be home, looking forward to this upcoming week finishing up as then I will be on Vacation for 2 weeks. I am debating on maybe adding another week to my Vacation to make it 3 as I really feel I need a break. Want to get started on some renovations and put some work in some fun type projects.

Tags: Dave, Edmonton, F1, Jason, Nascar, Ottawa, Paul, Tao tao, Travel

The past month has been so busy, and just now I was able to catch my breathe a bit. I must admit I have been looking forward to this long weekend for awhile, and for the most part because I am not going to do anything special.

The past few weeks have been pretty much devoted to moving. Everything is done, and we are no in our new home. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures yet. Mainly because the house is still a bit disorganized, and I don’t really want to take pictures of rooms with boxes in them. My office is really cluttered right now, and I am hoping I can get it setup a bit better. My family room is very cluttered as well, with boxes and stereo equipment in the middle of it. I took a week off to move, and had about 2 weeks from when I got possession until I had to move out of my old place, and in the end, I really needed all those days.

I was pretty fortunate to get help from my family and my friend Dave to help me move. I rented a truck, to haul boxes and smaller things over to the new house. Also we took the opportunity to throw out old things we no longer needed. A few trips to the dump, and we had things cleaned out, but unfortunately I had forgotten a few things to throw out, so I now have them in my new house. For my furniture, I hired movers to move that. They came, and moved the furniture fairly efficiently, I thought the price was a bit expensive, but at least I did not have to burden anyone with the furniture. My one complaint was that I had to leave a tip, which I was fine with at the time. But when I went back to my townhouse to start cleaning, I walked into the main bedroom bathroom, it smelled really bad. They had gone to the toilet, and never flushed, and also made a real mess on the seat. The smell was really bad, as they closed the door, and it was like that for a day, and the weather was really hot. Took awhile to air out, and turned my stomach to clean. If I had known what they had done, would have never left a tip, as that was just gross. Not sure if it was done on purpose, or not, but really did not appreciate it. All I can really do, is never use that company again, and not recommend to anyone else.

Cleaning my old townhouse took a lot of time as well. Thankfully my mom helped me clean it. We went from top to bottom and did a real good job of cleaning. I try to keep it clean, but there were still areas that were dirty, and with furniture, you can never get to all places. It was a bit tough to do, as I was thinking about my new home, and the things I wanted to do there. I must say after the moving, and the cleaning, and the heat, I was really exhausted. I am not in very good shape, so I need to make more of an effort to get into shape.

On the weekend I went with Paul and Jason to the Rexall Edmonton Indy. It was hot, I drank lots of water, got a sun burn and a lot of walking. All in all it was good. Still not Champ car, but I guess make the best of the situation. Will Power won the race, good to see a Champ car driver get the victory. Paul Tracy was at the race as well, and cool to see him have a good weekend. With all the moving, and things going on in my life, I probably did not get as much out of the race as I would have liked. Also with being so busy, have fallen behind on Champodcast. Jason is busy editing a few shows as well for work, so what was to be our flag ship podcast, will not be, which we feel a bit sad about. But we will try to get a podcast out soon.

I could only take one week off from work, since my co worker was away on Holidays. So this week was fairly busy at work as well. I had a few things to clear up for the house, so I had to push off some requests for overtime early in the week. I still managed to do some later in the week, as I could not get away from it, and look like more next week. I have always been bothered with that, people pushing over the summer for work to be done. I guess business never stops, but I just get the feeling the people pushing, are the ones who then go and enjoy summer, well the rest of us are left to handle their requests. I am probably just complaining, and my situation is a lot better then others.

This week was also the closing on my townhouse. All the cleaning was done, everything moved out, with a big thanks to my parents. There was a bit of drama with that, and will be honest I did not like how things ended with that. There is still a loose string, that might come back to haunt me, but at least it was all done. I am in my new house, and no ties to the old place. So looking forward to unpacking some of those boxes around me.

I did feel a bit embarrassed earlier in the week. Where I live now, they do not deliver mail to the house, but to community mailboxes. The previous owners left the key and the box number. I went all over the neighborhood looking for the box, and could not find one that my key worked in. I went to the post office to ask, and they gave me a phone number to call. I called that and the customer rep told me the box number, but still did not help me. I just needed to know where the mailbox was. I was getting a bit stressed about it. Well I was driving back to the house after going out to dinner with my parents and Tao tao and her Mom, and I jump on the brakes. Coming into my street, there was the mailbox. I jump out, and run over, and voila, my key worked, and a stack of mail. The thing is, I had driven past this mail box every day, and never bothered to notice it. It was literally under my nose. Typical of me, I guess I was looking harder then I needed to.

I am hopeful over the next few weeks that I can get all the boxes unpacked, as there are a few things I still haven’t located. Tao tao and her Mom are going on a trip next week, so I am looking forward to making some progress on things. This evening I cut the lawn for the first time. Bought a Lawnmower the other day, it was the floor model, so got 10 percent off, but cut my fingers up getting it out of the car. I am hoping to maybe start painting some rooms soon as well. If not when they are gone, then in September. Tao tao’s mom goes back to China later in August, so it might be easier then, as I can store some stuff in the room she is sleeping in.

Probably the thing I want to do the most is my toy room, but there is some renovations I must do first, so it has to wait a bit. So I am hopeful I can get on those pretty soon. I have some ideas, so hopefully it can come together.

I must say, this new office is a great experience for me, my old office was very hot, whereas this one is cool and comfortable. I am hopeful that it will allow me to be more productive on my PC and my websites. If I make good progress this weekend, I will take some pictures as well and post them on the site. I am also really looking forward to getting back to my normal routine.

Tags: Champ car, Champodcast, Dave, IndyCar, Jason, Mom and Dad, Paul, Paul Tracy, Rexall Edmonton Indy, Tao tao, Will Power

I haven’t mentioned this a lot over the past few months, but Tao tao and I decided we wanted to try moving again. After last years disappointment, where we had found a house, put an offer on it, and then could never sell our own, I did not want to get my hopes up this time around. A few months ago we re-listed our townhouse, and after about 60 days it sold. I must admit it felt like a long 60 days, with many people viewing the house, but no real interest of offers. I was planning on pulling it at the end of June if it had not sold, since Tao tao’s mom is coming for a visit. But a few weeks ago, at the end of May, we got an offer, and were able to sell the town house. Now the big thing was to find another house. I was feeling pretty good about things, and created a list of places I would like to look at. My realtor came back and said about half of them had sold or were pending, so I was getting nervous that I might not be able to find something, and would have to live like a nomad.

We went out the day after our Townhouse had sold, and started to look. I must admit I was very depressed, as all the houses we looked at, none I cared for. And that was it for my list, and new listing had seemed to slow down. My realtor then sent me a few more to consider that did not make the list. I went and we checked them out, and to my surprise I found a house I really liked. So we put in a offer, and after a bit of negotiation, it was accepted. I must say I felt very good about it. The past week and a bit have been busy with getting things finalized with the sale of our Townhouse, and getting things in order for our new house. But this week, pretty much everything is done, as the dates get closer, I will go to the lawyers and sign the papers, and then get ready for moving. Our Financing is in place and both the sale and our purchase have met the conditions.

I am really excited to move into a house. The first place I bought was a house, and after living there for a few years, I moved to a townhouse, as at the time I was single. But I found, a few years in townhouse living was enough for me. I think it is one of those things you need to experience to really understand, but at least I will not have my neighbors cigarette smoke wafting through the fresh air vents anymore. There were some things I wanted to upgrade in my townhouse, but truthfully, I always had this belief I would be moving, so anything that cost a lot, I was never really interested in doing. This was mainly developing the basement. I kept my collectibles down there, but never able to display them the way I wanted to. Part of me things I might have sold a lot of them, just due to my dissatisfaction of how I was keeping them.

I have to thank my parents, earlier in the week, they did the house inspection, and since I had meetings, I could not be there, but they were there on my behalf, and they said everything checked out good, with a few minor issues to look at. I was also a little nervous, as I did not know what they would think of my house, as they were away when I made the purchase. They really liked it, and feel it will be a good house for Tao tao and I. I was also happy to hear, that the bank appraised the house around what I paid for it, and they are usually conservative with their appraisals.

The house is a big house, and it reminds me a lot of my parents house, the house I grew up in for some nay years. It has a family room, with a big fireplace (People who know me, know that I am not a big fan of Fireplaces that take up entire rooms), but what I like about this family room, is that there is still place to put a TV and furniture. That was important to me, and probably one of my main considerations well looking for a house. The house also has a nice kitchen, with a door that leads out to the backyard. Lots of windows and well lit, and should be able to fit out kitchen table nicely, and give us room to cook. Also it has a nice basement that I will use to put my collectibles in, and also set up a bit of a games room. I am really excited about that, as I have some pictures I have had for over a year that I am looking forward to hanging up. I think I will also buy a few movie poster of some of my favorite movies, and put them in frames, and hang them up as well. I might hunt out a Iron Maiden Poster as well, and get that framed, I have some from when I was a kid, but a lot of those are in rough shape, so I might check online posters shops, and see if I can find one I like when looking for the movie posters.

I am really excited about moving. I will move mid July, so it is going to be an exciting month, and really busy. Tao tao Mom is coming as well for a visit, so I suspect we are going to be on the go for quite some time. Hopefully in August things will settle down, and I will get everything organized in the house. Probably in the fall, when we have everything setup, I will take pictures or make a video. I will leave setting the toy room up for last, as that is the one I am looking forward to the most. I want to thank my Parents, for their support, My brother Paul for his support and motivation, my friends Dave, Jason and Jason for their support, and my friend Rick for his encouragement from afar. I was pretty quiet about this, as I did not want to set my self up for the disappointment I had from last year.

Here is a link to the listing

Tags: collectibles, Dave, Iron Maiden, Jason, Jason L, Mom and Dad, movies, New House, Paul, Rick Moyer, Tao tao