Monday, December 29, 2003

Got up on time, left for the Ps house. Followed behind in the car. Everything went well. Took around ~3.5 hours.

Sunday, December 28, 2003

Left for the Ps place today ~@3:20pm, but went to ECY's place before around 12:00 noon. His friend was there and they were still in bed :-(. Said I would be back for 2:00pm but didn't get there until 3:00pm and his friend need a lift to work for 4:00pm. Just keep falling behind schedule.



The trip was to Monik's place and we got there no problem. The plan was to sleep there for the night and do the, 'mountains' tomorrrow. We would meet the P's who were coming back from T.O.



ECY and I stop just outside of Monik's place to check the show times for Lord of the Rings III (LOTR III). Going to see it for 8:30pm, after we eat.



LOTR III was pretty good. Lots of fighting. Story wrapped up reasonably well.



Got home ~@12:00 midnight. Went to bed had to get up for 7:00am to finish the trip.

Saturday, December 27, 2003

Went to NotraDame villiage with PetiteP [and Mother] for their annual family get together. Was surprise they wanted me to go and it was great. Mother phoned me @9:00am this morning. Decided in a half-hour to go and unfortunately had to kick ECY out cause she was coming at 11:00am'ish to pick me up after getting PetiteP at his Father's place.

Thursday, December 25, 2003

Went to XMAS Mass this morning wow for 9:15am 'ish. As usual very nice. Don't understand everything that's going on, but that's OK.



Finally got a photo of PetiteP in his Church cloths.

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

Went to the mall to get some last minute XMAS gifts and to get some nice cloths to wear to Church tonight. It took a lot longer then expected. I was hoping to get to PetiteP's place by 1:00pm but didn't arrive to 3:30pm...



I so thankful that I got invited.



I managed to find most of what I wanted to get for PetiteP for XMAS but I don't think I got enough for his Mother. Unfortunately their BornDay's after in Dec, so it's another year until I get a shot.

Monday, December 22, 2003

Went to look for another used car today after waking up at 9:00am to phone ECY's mother. It's important to do these 'phone' calls, see previous comments for reasons.



Spent most of the mid-morning looking at a used 1995 Honda EX, with ~130KM.



Still wondering how to 'fix' the 'problem' with PetiteP's Mother :-(

Sunday, December 21, 2003

Waited to hear from PetiteP's mother today after Church. No luck :-( Periodically phoned through out the day starting @12:00pm, and a couple of other times later. At 3:30pm 'ish decided to go out 'cause I was bored. Just drove to the, 'grand' mall, went in the Sears side. The good thing about this is that I found a English bookstore and a Simmons, perfect for XMAS and future book purchases. After being in the mall for maybe 15 min. ECY phoned so I left to go to his place. We worked more on his Web-site, and played with PhotoShop. He's incredibly good @using PhotoShop for a 'first-timer'. The diner was good with Mother and boyfriend.

Just before diner I phoned PetiteP and got thru. Well this wasn't a good conversation...Turns out the Mother thought ECY and I were goffing(sp) off with the car, by going to the gas station [in the other city] and since I haven't made a final decision about buying it she thinks I'm using her friend Pierre. Clearly if anyone knows me this would be impossible. And certainly, 'UnCristian'. This has potentially created a 'huge' problem for future holidays.

ECY stayed over at my place, but before we went to find some pop/chips. We watch the 2Fast/2Furious DVD. Good 'car' movie. Started the movie @11:45pm. Have to phone ECY's Mother @9:00am tomorrow.

Saturday, December 20, 2003

E-Mailed the seller AGAIN. Oddly he had time to post the item again [I'm becoming very concerned now] and to post feedback saying how quick I made a payment.



Heard from Pierre this morning [~9:30am] re: a new sticker for the car. Yesterday he said he'd drop it buy now he's saying come get it at some gas station. After yesterday's, "you're not invited to diner even though I made you wait all day for my call", you'd think he could at least do the ~20+min drive to drop the thing off :-(



Went to 'the' gas station took ECY with me. Good thing he came cause we got a little lost. The Licencse was there! GREAT!



Went to Reno Depot after and bought some small wheels. I want to build a small platform for the computer.



Went to FutureShop after to return PetiteP's Mother BornDay gift. No problems.



Went across the street to buy her 'replacement' gift.



Went to the local Honda dealer. Unfortuantely it was closed today, but saw a couple of cars I liked.



Went to bed @9:30pm, after all it's Church tomorrow.

Friday, December 19, 2003

E-Mailed the seller yesterday's EBay's auction. Haven't heard back.



Found a nice little bug with www.paypal.com. Turns out if you don't change the Address 1 field and add another address it thinks it's the same address and therefore doesn't add it.



Danny didn't show-up (or call) :-(



Waited to hear from Pierre. No luck, re: the car.



Went to the, 'big' mall today. Wow was the road ever packed today. It's all about the 'lights' being programmed incorrectly.



Well it was France's birthday today so not knowing her for very long I bought her a CD. Well as luck would have it she already had it. OK no problem. Only thing is I went over there at around 6:15pm on the way back from UPS. They were going out to diner for her birthday which she invited me to before. I wasn't totally clear that she wanted me to come but she said if I wanted to I could. Well being I ask PetiteP to ask her if I'm coming. She said no. She said Pierre didn't invite me. Hmmmm. I was thinking of paying for this but I guess not. Boy, was that ackward.



:-(

Thursday, December 18, 2003

Spent the day 'repairing' the computer again. I think I finally found out what the problem is/was. Turns out when you put this new video card in the computer it for some reason changes the order of the boot devices in the bios. It's a simple change to change the order of the boot disks. Haven't got a clue why it does this, but it's very reproducible. Unfortunately I have already formatted my main drive and now will spend the next 2+ days rebuilding the 'catalog' to try to restore the system. Have installed Win2K3, 'temporarily'.



Stayed up way to late [mid-night] to win an EBay auction.

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

Someone from the local Church phoned referred by a 'sister'. Seemed like a nice guy, unfortunately I asked him to e-mail me and haven't got anything. He told me about some local religious school. Hope to hear.



Danny came this morning, did the usual :-( Said he would come back on Friday to, 'finish' the floor and bathroom.



After he left I fell going to my car, since I had some packages I landed on my right elbow. Wow there's pain.



Went to return ECY's Headset to FutureShop. They said they would not return the money if I didn't have the original 'debit' card, but could put it on a FutureShop 'gift' card. So I did this and went looking for some stuff to buy. I was hoping to buy only a 'cheap' thing then ended up seeing some specials on software. Oddly I had a, 'conversation' with the FutureShop person if I could find out how much is on the card and they said no you had to phone a number on the back of the card. Of course as I suspected after purchasing the register tells you how much is on the card, but maybe it's because I was buying more than the amount on the card and it was, 'insufficient'.



Also bought some tapes.



Sent the Rogers HiSpeed modem back. ~$16.00 + $1.00 [insurance] + $1.00 [tape :-( ].



Oddly ECY phoned me @6:00pm'ish and invited me to his place. After yesterday this is wierd, but everything went fine. Came home ~11:20 pm.

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Hung around the morning waiting for, "Danny" to finish my place, luckily we agreed that he'd come back tomorrow @9:00am.



Tried fixing the computer again for most of the day. It's really screwed. Now trying to create another bootable Win2K CD.



Went to pickup ECY from school again. I tought I'd pay for his headset for his bornday. We went to RadioShack with APJ. Well problems happened because the 'parents' didn't know we were going.



When we arrived @ECY Mother's place boy did she take a, 'fit'.



ECY changed some more of his web-site.



Have to decide tomorrow if I keep the car.

Monday, December 15, 2003

Spent the entire day [5 hours+] removing snow from nouveau Mother's place. Wow.

Sunday, December 14, 2003

Went to ECY's place hung around. Went to Scores(sp) to pick up APJ. The restaurant was on fire, couldn't see anything from the outside. Went to Mike's after for a hot drink [$2.17].



First day I meet his parents. His Father speaks English.

Saturday, December 13, 2003

First full day with an internet connection, of course it went up and down.



Continued to try to rescue my Win2K Server. No luck.



Went to PetiteP's mother's place for 6:45pm. Her 'girlfriend' was there and they just seem to go on about the 'used' car I had and the problems I was having. Disappointing conversation.



Went to a violin concert for PetiteP. Mother brought the digital, but didn't bring any extra film, so we had about 6 mins. I decided to erase the 'fun' parts of PetiteP from before and overwrite it with concert footage. Had about 12 min in total.



PetiteP didn't invite me to his Father's place. :-(

Friday, December 12, 2003

Woke up @7:45am to take ECY [and JAS] to school this morning. Arrived @9:01am. Didn't account for 'scrapping' the car off of snow:-(

Put $16 [0.74] of gas into car.

Put up another blind [front-right].

Rebuilt the bookshelf ECY killed. Re-org'd the books. Very similiar to way it was done in T.O.

Changed address with cell phone and Visa.

Bought cpb4life.com address for ECY's born day tomorrow.

Ordered a card from TigerDirect.ca.



Thursday, December 11, 2003

Car needed repair today. Went to the closet corner Esso garage. $77.25 for a belt. Took ~45min.

Went to Reno Depot to return the furniture wheels. Chased down internet HiSpeed modem at local postal stop. Didn't seem to even know they have it.



Evil cousin (ECY) had a detention today so I went to pick him up after school today. Yann came over to see the new place for the first time. I think he liked it but it's hard to tell. He immediately invited APJ over so an hour later we had to go get his friend to also stay over. He said we'll help you unpack, but he ended up shifting boxes to the other side of the room and broke'ish book shelf!



Got internet working late. Wireless!



Started ECY web-site.

Wednesday, December 3, 2003

Started the day trapped behind a client's car had to wait an hour+, so I decided to use the time to take photos of the family album. Finally managed to leave at ~11:45am. Went to: Reno Depot: bought a new drill, drill set, screw driver set and some tork tools, CAA: For price of Lic. and CAA Membership, Dollarama: all kinds of Kitchen stuff, Super C: ZipLoc for the Freeezer. After went to my place to put up bedroom blinds [the new drill works amazingly (~$329)], tested DishWasher with new bracket and moved food into freezer with Ziplocs. Insurance place phoned, that's started!

Came back for ~5:45pm because Mother had a Doctors appointment needed car. Real appointment @7:00pm had a little sandwichs for diner.

Did arrangements for tomorrows trip to Montreal. Have to meet Pierre at some subway to look at, 'new' four-door SunFire car. This is going to be an adventure...

Tuesday, December 2, 2003

Phoned Bell to change the date for the new Phone to arrive. Not sure if they changed the date for sending out the HiSpeed Modem? Went to the bank to get, 'temporary' checks for the upcoming car purchase. The bank said $0.50/check. Doooh. Been with them for 10+ years! But they said free if you order checks at the other counter. So I said OK went to the other counter and didn't order any checks :-) Phoned for insurance today, as usual they totally screwed things up. I don't know I said exactly what I had in T.O. Test to see if a chain lock would work on my new front door - looks like it's going to be a little bit difficult. Went to L'estrie for another part for the DishWasher = $1.10.



Spent most of the day unpacking Kitchen stuff - only one piece broke from the trip - a small plate. Brought back some CD-Rs for Petit-P to create a Win98 CD.



After work went w/Fr. to Costco. - Bought ~$271.00 of way too big laundry + food, etc. They didn't like using her card with my credit card so she paid, now I have to repay her.

Friday, November 28, 2003

The day started @9:30am when, 'Jimmie' from UHaul called and said he wanted the truck back @12:00pm on Monday, since I'm renting it for 24 hours I don't get this, but my guess is he's 'double-booked' it for Monday, since he said he wants it for another customer Noon.

Ordered a LANd [telephone] line from Bell, apparently you need it for HiSpeed internet. ~$22 for the line and ~$34 for HiSpeed [if you signup for 1 year). I don't want the LANd line but I have to get it :-(

Filled-up the car and did a $3.99 car-wash. Problems understanding the car-wash, some 'automatic' thing, but after some embarresment and help from the attendee it worked.

Picked up PetiteP from school [the last time], I was going to buy him some candy before I went but as usually running late and worst of all it was raining so his Mother wanted me to use the car :-(

Thursday, November 27, 2003

Trying to figure out maybe life is easier if you only try to get one thing done a day. Seems to reduce the pressure. The question is how satisfying will this be after a while or when [this] life is over? And will going back to 'school' demand changing this?



Final night with PetiteP. He spends alternating weeks with the other parent. Too bad :-(
Well didn't get a lot done today. Got up late from my cousin's place had to walk 1 hour home got back to PetiteP's place @11:30am, after 30 min. or so had lunch with his Mother. Talk about how to install the new DishWasher. Spent some time in the afternoon transfering the tape of his BornDay to regular VHS tape. While it was recording phoned about new House Insurance. Little confusion there using the 'business' line. Had a shower and was running a little late to meet him for school, but was there on time. We got home he had a sandwich and started practicing his violin. 30 minutes a day. Well I hope he's ready for the Dec-13/03 concert. Went to Yann's restaurant @6:45pm. It was OK. Apparently I tried to eat something I've never had before and I eat it wrong, but Petit-P's mother stopped me. They said the 'shell' would kill me. I don't know about that but I stopped. We returned home and the usual 'quick' shower and off to bed. Tomorrow have to find a car.

Wednesday, November 26, 2003

PetiteP's mom took me to Yann's place today, thank God. It's a short drive but it's a, 'good' walk. I don't know the excitement of my cousin seems to be wearing out. Maybe just a bad day I don't know - probably me. The difference between the two, 'families' is incredible. From one being very disciplined to the other being really social. I don't know who's going to be more successful but it certainly begins with your definition of successful.



Changed my, 'permanent' address today. ~$35.00 :-(



Sunday, November 16, 2003

Left way to late, 12'noon. It's gonna take 9.5 hours to drive there. Now it's going to be dark out when I get there. Thank God I've gone there before.



Almost hit a car on one of the highway off ramps.

Saturday, November 15, 2003

Moving to Quebec! Packed the Truck. Leaving the car in Toronto. Will pack the truck today and leave tomorrow morning.



Someone [Alex] packed my HiSpeed modem. Now that's going to be a bit of a problem to send back to Toronto.



Took way too long. Didn't finish until 11:45pm. Had too much milk to drink and my heart would not stop 'racing' so I couldn't get to sleep.