Esquimalt Impression

Lol I just got off the phone with a representative from Tom Woods, the Liberal candidate for Esquimalt/Juan de Fuca.

The conversation went something like this:

Other person: Hi my name is XXXXX. I am calling on behalf of Tom Woods, the BC Liberal candidate for Esquimalt/Juan de Fuca. I would like to ask you a few questions if you have a couple minutes.

Me: Sure

OP: I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you.

Me: Yeah, go ahead.

OP: OK, thanks.

**click**

Me: what the hell?

For some reason I got hungup on. Good impression!

Turkey Damage

How disgusting is this?

I was preparing dinner. Hot N Spicy Turkey burgers. The recipe sounds awesome. I mixed up the sauce, then set about to make the burgers.

I placed the turkey in a bowl and measured the oats. I dumped them in, then notice it.

Don’t read on if you are squeamish.

The oats started moving! Uggh.

:y

There was some kind of weavel or something in them. Gross! I quickly dumped the oats off the turkey, but the damage was done. There was no way I could have eaten that turkey.

I checked out the bag of oats, and a moth flew out. Everything went into the garbage. Perhaps we will try that recipe later.

Ultimate Registration

looking up the road into the future

Ever since the corporate games Ultimate series I have been thinking about playing again. I first gave it up because I kept injuring myself, and that was hampering my mountain biking. After a break I played a summer league, and although it was fun, I felt I was on a bad team. I didn’t like the captain very much, and that was a big drawback for me.

But I have been thinking about playing again. It has been gnawing at me for a couple of months now.

Well, the other day I got an email that announced that Victoria Ultimate Players Society summer league registration was up and open. Since I have the 24 Hours of Adrenaline in Whistler to train for, I figured I would sign up. The online registraiton was simple and easy. I am all signed up now. I am playing Ulti again, and I am totally looking forward to it. The first game is on May 4. More on this later!

Unfurled Protection

give them the stink eye

With a glare in my eye, I stare them down. It is raining, and as I walk back to work from the car and I try to stay dry. I have no umbrella, and I am starting to get wet. Then it happens. I approach someone, each of us not wanting to step from under the protection and get wet. Yet, the person I pass has an umbrella in the up position.

Why do people insist on walking under the awnings when they have an umbrella? I had more than one person force me to step out into the rain as we passed each other. Does this make sense? Why have the umbrella unfurled if you are under an awning? Why force others to get wet when you have some protection to keep yourself dry?

Grr, yet another pet peeve due to peoples inconsiderate nature.

Repositioned Manfrotto

water falling onto a pond

Yesterday the photo gang got together to take some pictures. Originally we met at Hatley Castle and were going to walk to what turned out to be the Pacific Centre Family Services Associaton. After checking a map we repositioned our vehicles outside the front gates, which suited us much better. The Pacific Centre is a next door neighbour to Royal Roads, and is somehow affiliated with them. The grounds are beautiful, and there are many water features, though it sort of feels like a cheapened version of Royal Roads.

Water was a significant theme with my shots from this shoot. Seeing how it was raining, that was wholly appropriate. It was difficult juggling the camera, a tripod, and a large golf umbrella, but I am quite proud of my shots.

Speaking of tripod, I used my new tripod for the first time. I like it. I like it a lot. It is a Manfrotto 550, and I bought a ball head for it. The Ball head makes all the difference in the world. Fiddling with levers and twisting dials made me not want to use my old one. This tripod is easily adjustable, and the ball head a snap to manipulate. Sweet!

Pics are here.

Sandwiched Hindrance

lock em away for good

Tuesday, while walking back to work from my car after lunch, I saw the after effects of a fender bender.

A Toyota truck was pulling out from the curb. Sandwiched into the driver side front tire was a Subaru Outback (or some similar car). Looks like either the pickup driver didn’t look for traffic, or the Subaru didn’t stop for the truck pulling out.

The thing that makes them morons is that they left their vehicles like that, blocking the entire lane in the middle of downtown Victoria, while tourist season is starting to pick up. Traffic was starting to pile up, yet the drivers were just standing there looking at the vehicles.

I took a peek as I walked by, and could see some sheet metal damage, but no obvious hindrance to the driveability of either vehicle. Why not get the hell out of the way?

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Swimming Improvements

doin the doggy paddle

I swam 550m tonight. And I didn’t doggie paddle once! I am getting into swimming a little more the past few months, and I can see some pretty big improvements in my swimming already. Must get ready for September.

Tonight we used the last of our commonwealth pool tickets. From now on we will be swimming in the new Esquimalt pool, which is a lot handier since it is only 5 blocks away instead of a 15 minute drive.

Firefly Clunk

This almost went under Morons in our Midst, but decided against that.

While in a parking lot, someone ran into me. Actually, she backed into the front end of the Firefly.

I had pulled into the parking lot of Spinnakers and waited while the lady backed out of her spot. As she pulled forward I followed, but then she stopped. She couldn’t make a corner, so she backed up. She was looking over her shoulder and saw that I was there. I backed up a little so she had more than enough room, and she continued backing up.

By this point I had stopped, and she had plenty of room to get around the corner, yet she continued in reverse. As she started to get too close for comfort I honked. I guess this scared her, or caught her off guard because it appeared he sped up (still in reverse). I think she accidentally hit the gas.

**CLUNK**

The truck’s bumper slid over the car’s bumper, and the hood crumpled up a couple inches. Crap.

She pulled ahead and off to the side. I got out of the car to survey the damage. When I looked up the truck was gone! I scanned the area and saw she was pulling around into the parking lot again.

I moved my car out of the way and talked to the ladies boyfriend who saw the whole thing. Apparently she was having a bad day, and this was the topper. We exchanged information, and I popped the hood. The damage was pretty minimal actually. The hood was bent, and one part caved in a little, but it was all cosmetic. Also, one headlight had a bracket broken which leaves the headlight a little floppy. I managed to pretty much bend the hood back into shape, but it still looks a little busted. The headlight will need to be fixed though.

I am hoping the cost of the headlight will be under $100, and that she will just cover it. I think I got all her info too, so that is a good thing. I am going to call around tomorrow and see if I can track down a headlight.

Sigh, hard to call someone a moron when they are already having a bad day.

Malware Hater

technical

Finally got rid of some malware off my desktop machine today. I tried several times to uninstall Noron Antivirus 2002, but each time it said it uninstalled, it messes up my connection to the Internet. Today I did another Google search and found out that perhaps the uninstall was failing leaving some registry keys laying around. Sure enough, a quick delete, and everything was working fine. Funny thing though, after one uninstall/reinstall of Norton Antivirus I learned that it thought it hadn’t been installed before, and that I had a one year subscription. Hmm. Too bad I have turned into a hater of Norton AV.