Analog Coast

What the fuck is wrong with us programmer types. Why is it that my fist programming job cannot be “mig” (Management Information Group… I suggest you don’t work for them.. although Don, the man in charge of development, still rates as the, hands down, best development boss I’ve ever had. One day, I hope to be as good as him)

And why cannot by first car be a “geo”? I had a Geo Metro, I bought it for $3000 CAN, from the neighbor across the street, it was white and sporty, and it stopped working approximately the same time as I crashed it’s backend into the back of a cement wall… still, the cement wall was rather shifty looking and deserved what it got.

What the FUCK is it with people of my profession (programmer) that feel their stupid ass lame fuck validation rules are more important than my personal story (i.e. reality) that the can enforce arbitrary and incorrect rules that make their lives more convienient and my life make less sense.

The thing that’s most troublesome of all is I’m sure I’ve written just such shitty code, because it was in a spec, which I knew didn’t make sense, just so I could say “yes, it works as expected”, even though I knew the expectation was complete bullshit.

FUCK.

P.S. My banking application will not let me log in until I complete their new validation rules. So I cannot pay my monthly. fucking. bills. until I lie to them. sigh there’s just no hope… This is the kind of shit that makes me embarrassed to be involved in the computing industry.

My poor neglected blog. *sigh* You'd almost think it was summer vacation or something.

So, today is our third wedding anniversary. Yup, the years are just rolling on by. It seemed like the day would be a fairly plain Jane kind of event but I was pleasantly surprised.

The kids and I spent a quiet morning at home getting some cleaning done and I lamented the fact that I hadn't worked on Liam's anniversary gift (a small scrapbook of our relationship) or even written a card for that matter. At lunchtime I took the kids out to my parents' house and once the Lil was asleep I made a hasty retreat to South Edmonton common.

The real fun began when I got to spend $50 at Old Navy and $25 at Reitman's without spending a dime. The Old Navy gift cards were from an award Liam had won at work and the other ones were a Christmas gift from the in-laws. It pays to forget about your gifts for 8 months because it's like Christmas all over again!

I left the stores with a pair of jeans, three tank tops, a button-up blouse, and a knit shirt. Not a bad haul for $75, thanks to the discount racks!

After shopping I hit Spasation where I used yet another gift card (thanks again Bob and Peggy!) to get my hair cut. I got chewed out a bit by the hairdresser for going so long between trims and she took a fair bit off the ends since they were so wrecked. My hair feels very short now that it's not to my waist! It looks nice though so I won't complain too much.

My next stop was to pick Liam up from work. We headed home to get ready for dinner and I got to show him all my new clothing. I got all dressed up and we headed out for dinner.

Dinner. Yum! Yet *another* gift card (from my parents this time) purchased us two buffet dinners at Taste of India, our new favourite restaurant. (We've considered calling it "our" restaurant but the past two joints which have been dubbed such have ceased to exist so we're hoping not to jinx this one.) Between the melt-in-your-mouth butter chicken and the divine sweets we were thoroughly sated.

To top off all these pleasant dining and retail experiences, we've had some fantastic news today.

First off, my parents' anniversary gift is to forgive the $20 000 loan we took out from them in order to buy our house. Yup. Liam almost fell over when we found out. This frees us up from the monthly payments we'd been making and takes an enormous amount of stress off of us. Let's hear it for early inheritance!!

Next, I found out that I will indeed be working at an Usborne table on Friday at a literacy-type fair. And to make the deal even sweeter two friends are also going to have a table set up to promote their business. So now not only do I get to earn some extra bucks and get some leads for future shows, I get to hang out with friends for the afternoon!

All in all today has been a fantastic sort of day. It's certainly nowhere near the very joyous day of thee years ago, but it's a smaller echo of the day-long happiness. It's days like these that remind me of how fun and uplifting life can be.

Event Info

• Name: Farewell Party
• Tagline: come out, we’ll miss you
• Host: Kyle and Erron
• Type: Party - Goodbye Party

Time and Place

• Start Time:
  Friday, August 24, 2007 at 6:00pm
• End Time:
  Saturday, August 25, 2007 at 2:00am
• Location:
  Kyle and Erron’s house
• Street:
  3406 44 street
• City/Town:
  Leduc, AB

As you probably know, we are moving to Chicago for 2 years. The movers pack all our stuff up on Thursday and load it on Friday. We are probably leaving on Saturday.

Yes, it’ll be a sad goodbye, but also a good time too. You can come to congratulate Kyle for finally finishing his PhD, you can come and see our newest addition Natalia, you can come just to say goodbye to good friends.

As a bonus, we will not be allowed to take any leftover pantry items or cleaning supplies across the border, so there will be fabulous parting gifts!

One final item, it would be helpful if since the house will be essentially empty if you could come prepared to help and clean up a bit, and maybe bring a chair since we might not have any.