Tuesday, June 29, 2004

How to explain today?



I phoned ECY ~@10:05am and he was sleeping. Went for a great Bike rid to the school. Some absolutely amazing trails and sights to see. Took a quick tour around the University. There's a summer camp going on with tennis as part of it. Great stuff!



ECY phoned me ~@12:00pm he said Mini-pomme wanted to come over and grab a CD. Sure no problem. I finished the photo I did of him and posted to the Net. When he saw it it's really hard to say if he liked it. His mind was on something else. I like the photo - that's enough ;-)



We goofed around a bit played War Craft III and Need for Speed: UnderGround, just for a little bit. You watch these people play and one can not help be fasinated by the learning process. How can they possibly understand how to play when it's not even in their language.



Just before leaving for the Grande-Mall Petit-P MSN'd me from his vacation. Always great to hear from him but I couldn't chat too long 'cause we were heading out.



We left and went headed to the Grande-Mall, trying to time it for when APJ would be finished work. Well we end up stuck in the parking lot of the Grande-Mall where Mini-Pomme refuses to leave the car because he's wearing shorts that don't fit properly and he thinks that girls are going to look at him funny. Somehow it's ok in my place and around town but not in the mall!?!?!? So we ended up at FutureShop. For some reason there's no girls at FutureShop. Well not true this time. After this 'performance' I was reminded of just how much of a 'punk' some people can be. Moments of greatness followed by stup#$@. No matter entertaining.



ECY drove my car to APJ's work and they followed each other to ECY's place. Apparently not only did APJ's parents kill his dog [yes u read it right] but they sold the house and went on vacation. Leaving APJ for 3-4 days with ECY. That house must be 'packed'. No doubt a 'bundle-of-fun'. Saw Dom again today for a second, waved, no reaction.

Monday, June 28, 2004

Avec ECY,

Well Annie and Petit-P are both on vacation so it's going to be a long week. ECY phoned early today [~@8:50am] to go pickup his car part. More then happy to get going. Mini-Pomme was with him who I haven't seen in a long time. We head over to the car place ~@10:10am. ECY got his stuff and inquired about head lights as well.



After we headed back to his place for some lunch and I met the new 'house guesses'. His mother has a new helper. Actually she seems VERY nice. Apparently a volunteer. Certainly the right age for me. ECY says shes already got a boyfriend. Another new guest downstairs is the 'old' women and her son. I think that's a first that someone has brought their kid. 'Dom' didn't look like the happiest kid ever, but I guess what his Mom's gone thru[?] who would be. Of course maybe it's just a new environment and he's not used to it. I think they moved in yesterday. I think he will enjoy it. He can play with ECY and Mini-pomme.



Speaking of enjoying I had a good time 'hanging-out' with ECY. We took some photos of the new car part and he drove my car in the afternoon. We ended up at my place and it was the first time Mini-Pomme had ever visited. ECY never seems to like to sit still for 2 min. in my place but he's more of an non oeuf-tate. The entertainment ended at ~@3:45pm 'cause ECY had to prepare for work. I returned home and watched the DVD, "The Shipping News". :-(

Saturday, June 26, 2004

Watched the DVD, "Meet the Parents". No.



Also wanted to invite Petit-P's Mom to diner, but unfortunately she had made other arrangements.



Not getting a lot of news where I live I only found out today that Tony Randell and Mattie J.T. Stepanek died, "recently".

Friday, June 25, 2004

ECY phoned and wanted to go visit a car, "parts" place.



So we went and he ended up buying two new muphlers(sp) for his Honda. $115x2+0.03.

We also visited FutureShop, went to his place, fixed his web-site with APJ's photo and returned to my place and he left about ~3:40pm. After not seeing him for several days not exciting. Now that his friend has a car I'm sure he prefers to be with him. Understandable.



Watched the DVD, "Spirit". A little disappointing after yesterday's DVD.

Thursday, June 24, 2004

Watched the DVD, "Find Nemo". Having fallen asleep several times before watching this [no fault of the content] it was nice to get thru it. Great movie.



Today was the first day I got the mountain bike out for the season. Took a rid along the city's bike path. Ended up going the north direction off the main bridge. I'll try the south direction some other day. Went for quite a while and then did a, "uie". Still more to do there. On the return trip the hill to my house takes that last little bit of energy out of you. Felt a little sick, reminding me of biking in T.O.



Finished a macro version of the 'deploy asp.net' vs.net add-in. Thinking about it later that night it's not exactly what's needed. Still need to support entire project and folder deployment and ftp support. But it's a cool v0.1.

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Watched the DVD, "Mystic River".



Great movie. You think you know all the way thru, but great 'long' ending. Two thumbs up!!!

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Programming a VS.NET Addin.



~Began programming a VS.NET add-in to support 'deploying' ASP.NET files.

Monday, June 21, 2004

Visited Petit-P's Mother.



Noticed that she begun a lot of summer renovation's to the house. She's got a lot of changes coming. Should be pretty exciting.



She's taken down the kid's swing set and replaced the water heater.



Due to the renovations she called me to take Petit-P's Macintosh. He said he was giving it to me, but due to 'minor' problems in the past I'm reluntant to take it. The monitor doesn't work and I've already got a Mac that I'm not using so I don't really need/want it, but I don't want her to put it in the garbage if that's the alternative.

Sunday, June 20, 2004

Took my first walk in the city.



Decided since I wanted to go visit Paris I'd go walk over to Petit-P's place and talk to his mother.



It takes ~45 min. to walk.



I arrived @~3:45pm [I think], and end up having diner with her and talking family history.



Looked at the agenda for Petit-P's Europe trip and since he's moving everyday and that no other non-kids went on the trip I best forget 'surprizing' him.



Left ~@8:15pm and arrived ~@9:00pm.

Saturday, June 19, 2004

Blog Day



Caught up with the set of Blogs and installed, "Need for Speed: Underground".



Friday, June 18, 2004

Petit-P off to Europe!



Well after visiting Petit-P's place yesterday to say good-bye I was pleasantly surprised to get his phone call today. They wanted me to come down and see him off on the bus. Loved it! Exactly what I wanted. I brought the camera and took lots of photos. Thanks Petit-P.



One of the most interesting tidbits was a conversation with Dominic when I first arrived. He asked about ECY's car and did ECY pass his school year. I was absolutely thrilled that some people undertstand the relationship between having something like this and doing well in school. This is so cool that he understands this. Ya Dominic. (P.S. I need a new name for him!?).

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

More web-site design.



Spent the entire day again working on the web-site. Well at least it's up and it's staying up. Ironically just before posting it someone referred to the, 'old' pictures :-)



Went to visit Petit-P ~@7:00pm. Nice to take a break. He wants me to help him with his web-site. Sure no prob.



I also brought over a, 'temporary' replacement watch he could use while he is on vacation. My old Prof Services watch. As soon as he flipped it around he said he couldn't read it. Oh my. I would never have believed someone who I respect so much because he and his family understand the importance of education would not know how to read 'analog' time. It's come up once before in my life, but it's always a surprise. My immediate concern was if he can't read analog time then can he do basic math, because clearly people are being taught 'digital' time and math with calculators. A quick little test says everything is OK, but I think I still like to confirm some [other] math questions.

Saturday, June 12, 2004

Blog Day

Typical Saturday morning for me. I get caught up with my blog reading. Also played some more FarCry.



In the afternoon at ~4:15pm I needed to be at the Univerisity for Petit-P's violin concert. Before I left I needed to return the DVDs rented the previous day. Left ~@3:45pm for the video store.



Arrived on time at the University, but surprise they wanted $12 for the concert :-(. So I looked around and ended up going upstairs and found an open door and saving a seat for Petit-P's Mom.



After reading an article on doing home video I was more then anxious to be some tips to the test. I'm never really sure what and how much Petit-P's mom want me to film. Since I don't know who long these concert's are I always try to be conservative.



I think it went will - less 'shacky' then normal. Tried to do some 'establishing' shots.



After went to PFK for dinner. Messed around picking 'weeds' in Petit-P's backward and then went in the house to play for an hour or two.



Left ~@10:00pm.

Friday, June 11, 2004

More UPF Web-site design...



Listened in on 20->30 minutes of Carl Franklin's VB.NET Advanced Class via Ultra VNC (a free public screen sharing utility].



Continued to work on Annie's web-site. Now it's based on ASP.NET. I'm still working on a final 'template'.



Watched the DVD, "Bringing Down the House".



Thursday, June 10, 2004

Mailed diploma.



Sent a [mail] post to Annie with the sample Diploma and 8x10 photo. Should arrive by Monday.



Continued working on the UPF web-site.



ECY's phoned and said he wanted to come over and watch a DVD.



We watched the DVD, "The Recruit", after going to get an ice-cream at the place just near Petit-P's Fathers place.



The film finished @~10:45pm and we 'raced' to get him home by 11:00pm

Monday, June 7, 2004

Wow there's a mis-understanding...My first/last[?] rant ???



Went over to Petit-P's mother's place today to find out where the dentist is located. I need to go before the end of the month 'cause I'm in pain now. She help get me an appointment for tomorrow - no doubt I couldn't have done this by myself. But as that was resolved she asked me about Petit-P's computer. Hmmmm...

For some reason she thought that as long as I was living in town I was responsible for letting Petit-P use my computer. I really don't understand how she could misunderstand something so much. He has been without a computer since last Thursday. Let's examine this. Friday he's not there until after school. Saturday is the wedding [all day], Sunday [all] morning in Church. So how much can he really 'need' a computer?! You try and help and this is what happens. 'Am I obligated to fix all their equipment? So we talked and decided that no matter what it was best that they buy a 'multisync' monitor. I went to Costco, after she phoned her previous husband who said he bought two 'flat' screens for ~$149.00. Well when he says flat, he doesn't mean LCD-flat, a common misunderstanding. The Daystar G701 is available at Costco for the above price. I phoned her back ~@4:00pm and told her it seemed OK, after checking at FutureShop.

Sunday, June 6, 2004

Vistors...[A little rant, but positive].



Finally created ECY's CD. ECY came over in the afternnon after I had just returned. We meet up on the street. After messing around with the computer for a while I could see the CD wasn't working. During his visit Petit-P's mother phoned and 'dumped' him off. Really a big surprise. She phoned a few minutes before coming. Not that I mind but I thought they'd just pop by see the place, since we talked about it last week and then off they go. I don't mind anyone popping him. In fact I love it. As she was leaving she said I'll be back ~@5:00pm, it was ~@1:30->2:00pm.

He brought over the video of the wedding they went to the day before. He's surprisingly good at Window's Movie Maker.

He stumbled around my house as usual. Tripped over the cord for the computer, pulling it out of the power supply. As usual when I look back on these things I always think shouldn't the parent jump in and say something. It's obvious that it's not a good thing to happen. Oh well. Still enjoyed their visit.

After they left I started the DVD, "About Schmit". Ran too late for me so I plan to watch the rest tomorrow.

Saturday, June 5, 2004

Went looking for a living room table at the Church garage sale. Apparently this weekend is the annual 'garage-sale weekend' for everyone. Didn't find anything, so I headed over to Petit-P's place. 'Wasted' the morning there as he cut the grass and prepared for the Wedding.



Rented 3 DVDs: About Schmidt, About a Boy and ...

Friday, June 4, 2004

Movie Camera Day.

Since I had to return Petit-P's Mother's movie camera today, I spent most of the day taking the video off and onto the computer. Still can't figure out how to edit the movie and save it back to tape. Look for some software to do editting.

Returned the camera @~3:30pm and was planning on going to get ECY at school, but ended up talking to his Mother for too long. Turns out ECY's mother went to get him anyway, so everything worked out for the better.

Watched the DVD, "Gothica". Nice acting job by Haley Barry.

Thursday, June 3, 2004

Got up late, or at least I thought so ~@8:00pm, but no one else was up. I thought the P's got up and left without me hearing. After I saw no one else was up went back to bed for 1/2 hour. They pakced up and left @10:00am. It is a five hour drive. And they phoned after an hour or two when they got home.



After they left, wasted the rest of the day. Watch the remaining part of the DVD, "Riply's Game".



Talked to ECY via messenger. His friend now has an internet connection. We endup going to the Grande-M ~@11:15pm. One of his friend's friend was sitting in a car outside the place. I inquired as to what he was doing and was informed that he was waiting for possible work. Apparently he works there but is disparent for money so he sometimes waits for an extra shift. Unfortunately he has also dropped out of school.

Wednesday, June 2, 2004

Woke-up to the P's re-arranging my place ~@9:30am. Ended up spending most of the day 're-arranging things'. The place has a more female presence to it. Plants and things on the table etc.



Went to Rona to pick up some screws for the bookshelf and haven't built in years. Tried to waste some time before dinner with ECY @4:30pm, but decided to come home instead and build the shelf. Arrived at ECY's place late ~@5:00pm and went to his restaurant as opposed to eating at his place.

Before going to eat we went to see ECY's car. The P's having only ever seen photos. Spent a good 15-20 min. there before heading to the restaurant. His mother went directly to the restaurant.

ECY being as social as ever got a long with the waitress. He said later that she liked me. ECY and I spent sometime after diner taking photos and movies of the restaurant. The P's paid for diner. I felt bad that they'd been paying for everything while they were here, but I just didn't have the money.

After diner everyone came back to my place for 'coffee'. It's the first time ECY's mother had seen the place, and ECY had not seen it since the 're-arranging' and cleaning. I know that he like it, but don't know about his mother. They left ~@9:00pm and being the last night my Ps were there we had a 'bitch' session.

Tuesday, June 1, 2004

Raining again. :-(

We squeezed in the tour of all the 'sites' today starting with the University. A quick drive around then over to the Super-C and Dollarama, finally to the Grande-Mall. I thing everyone was tired after that. Back to my place for the P's to shower before gonig out to diner. Talked to ECY's mother to make arrangements for tomorrow. She said she would be dinner for the five of us, after picking up ECY at school.

Went to Benny Won Ton's(sp) for dinner. Meeting up with MNM @8:00pm. She showed up just after, but without Petit-P. A little disappointing, but he had a 'congradulation' dinner for some 'political' thing he is/was involved in.

Watch 3/4 of the DVD, "Riply's Game". Both Father and I fell asleep. I decided ~@12:00pm that I didn't want to stay up late and that we/I could watch the rest another day.