ANTS!

We must have spilled SOMETHING with sugar.

Actual Typing!

OK, so here's the trip so far!

First, I get up crazy early (8am...why do people get up then!!!??) so that I can get a bit of shopping that I quickly needed done. So, I run with my car, and then return the rental car. So, I get that returned by 9:30, so then go home to get packed and get ready to go. I manage to pack everything in one suitcase!! Yay!! New Air Canada luggage! Yay! (Thanks Mom and Dad!).

Get to the airport at about 11:30, flight boards at 12:40. So, get all checked in - it's a lot easier with WestJet than Northwest was. Then I grab some food. Showed up early, so that I could get food. Then go through security, which is just pathetic in Saskatoon.

So, I'm waiting for my flight, watching the news about the assassination of Bhutto. Our flight is delayed 7 minutes. Then 17 minutes...then 30 minutes. We end up leaving about 2ish, instead of at 1. So, I got to spend some extra time in the Saskatoon airport. So, we take off, head to Winnipeg. We land in Winnipeg, and have a short break there to get more passengers and stuff. So, I just stay on the plane. They sprayed some weird stuff on the wings because there was ice they wanted to get rid of.

Then we head off to Pearson airport. We fly over a bunch of random weird water (picture in previous post...you saw it, you know you did). Then we head over Lake Superior and the other one...I don't know which one, the pilot didn't name it and I don't know my Great Lakes geography very well. Anyway, we head just diagonally over them. It's a bit disconcerting to fly over water.

So, get to Pearson. It's big, but not really any more than Minneapolis was, so I'm not too freaked out. Wait for my luggage while texting people to let them know I'm alive. Someone TAKES my luggage, and I see him, and I'm eyeing him from across the luggage carousel. Fortunately a few minutes later, the girl with him comes up and lets him know that he has the wrong one...which was obvious because even I could see from across the luggage thing that it was clearly MY business card on it. Sheesh people!! Read the luggage tags!! That's what they're there for.

Head on out, find Kaitlyn and Mike. Fortunately am able to recognize them on sight :P Mike is much taller than I expected. So, we head to Mike's vehicle and make a ridiculously long drive back to his place.

His place is really nice. So are his parents. :) So, all is well. We stay up drinking and pillaging until I'm basically passed out. Then I wake myself enough to exchange presents. I've got both a birthday present (only a BIT late) and Christmas presents. I got an ENTIRE box of candy necklaces. Seriously, an entire box. Shoebox. My teeth are going to hate me. She also got me, "Create a Commie." Where I can move the hair around on a face to make my favourite communist! Also, got some mittens and some bath thingies from Lush. Super nice!! Yay!!

Then I went to sleep, and now here I am!

Ze First Pictures

Well, I've survived my first night, and haven't yet been killed by people from the internet. Here are some pics from the trip so far!!

Random weird water in western Ontario.


Lake Superior! My first look at a Great Lake.


The lights of Toronto as we flew in. Flying in was scary by the way. It was dark, and we were above the clouds and then when we were heading down into the clouds, it was like we were in NOTHING. It was freaky.


Tequila shots.


Reaction to the tequila shots. That stuff is NASTY!


The lovely Jemisica. Or Mike as his parents call him.


Captain Isabellgrace!


Oh, apparently I've stuck a random picture of Manitoba in here!! With some cool, low cloud cover.


The lovely Lady Qymburleigh. Didn't meet me at the airport...PSH!


Kaitlyn wearing one of her Christmas presents from me.


Kaitlyn checking out the magazine I was trying to sell her.


And Mike definitely has TWO giant screens. More than he needs, that's for sure.


Hmmm, that's all so far. Bumming around the house today, but plans are that tomorrow we shall go places and do things!!!

Good Lord I'm a Nerd

I travel 2 provinces away to drunken pillage, just like I do back home in Saskatoon.

NERD ALERT!!!

Adventure #2 - Internet Tubes

Well, it's time for my second adventure of the year.

This time I'm staying in the country, visiting Ontario for the first time.

You all knew it would happen, and it has. I'm off meeting people from the INTERNET. My friends, Jemisica, Isabellgrace, and Qymburleigh - or as they are known in the real world, Mike, Kaitlyn, and Chris.

Now, don't worry. I've only been molested twice, and I assure you, I enjoyed it both times.

Anyway, I'll be updating as time goes on.

I'm Home!!

Finally!

Now I'm going to bed.

Night all!

I just wanna go home!!!

Well, in 3 hours I'll be in the air. Until then, this SUCKS. I don't want to do anything, I just want to GO HOME.

Problems and Solutions!

Problem - the chairs all have arm rests which makes it very difficult to stretch out and sleep.

Solution - get a corner chair. 2 rows of chair perpendicular to each other...sit on one, put feet up on other - no arm rest issues.

I managed to find this situation AND it's near a plug-in for my laptop AND it's in a dark corner. Beauty.

Also, it's a bit warmer over here - no cold air blowing directly on me. Although I could still use a blanket...or a man. Preferably a man.

I am slowly going crazy

123456 Switch!

Crazy going slowly am I

654321 Switch!

If you don't know that song...you SUCK!

I've started stirring up trouble on the main YPP forums...always a risk. But I'm pretty much batty right now, so whatever. It's 1:15am...and I've been running on EST, so it's really 2:15am by my inner time clock. But, I'm still awake! Somehow!

I moved to more comfy chairs....it's a darker place...but COLD. Found out during my wander here that I'm definitely not the only person spending the night in the airport, so that made me feel better.

There's a dude riding by on a vacuum.

And in comes the misadventure part...

I am fucking STUCK in Minneapolis. Now, sorry to those of you who aren't big fans of the swearing, but it must be done.

All I wanted to do was go home. It's been a long trip and I just wanted to go home.

Well, the day has gone shitty. First, I leave a bag in my cab and then it's gone and I have no way of getting it back. Fortunately, there was nothing VITAL in that bag. Important, yes...but not vital.

So, that just got me all upset.

THEN, my flight leaves like an hour and a half late, effectively making me late for my connection to Saskatoon.

So, here I am. Stuck in the Minneapolis airport. My flight is at 11:40am, it is currently 11:30pm. And I've been here since 9:30pm. So far, I have been informed 5 times that the security level is Orange...ORANGE peoples!!

Also, I phoned and there were NO hotel rooms available in Minneapolis.

Now, I'm sure in a couple weeks, this will be funny, but just right now it isn't.

Anyway, I'm going to keep blogging periodically through the night, so we can all see my growing insanity as it happens.

I haven't even cracked out the Skittles yet.

Goodbye Washington

Well, I made it. Just finished my last session with my conference and I fly out in about 8 hours. So, I just need to check out and then somehow amuse myself for about 6 hours and then head on home.

This was a great trip, and I'm glad I came and that I survived it. Gotta say a BIG thanks to Sandy for making it possible for me to come and to Colleen of course who did a lot of the footwork in getting everything ready :)

This is a beautiful city and it was probably a good city to be my first "big city" visit as it's easy to get around (except for that one dumbass cab driver) and hard to get lost.

Overall, the biggest thing I got out of this trip was the realization that I really, really want to go visit my own nation's capital, Ottawa. It's really great seeing the pride the US has in its capital, and it's time I went and saw my own.

One last picture. This was probably a pivotal moment for me. This was last night, on my last night in Washington. This was my view sitting on the steps of the Lincoln memorial. It was kind of my time to sit and reflect on my trip and where I was and just kind of be wowed. The view is spectacular and when you sit and think of all the history that happened on the steps, it's just incredible. Like I said, I'm glad I came, it was a good trip, and to all my US friends - you can be proud of your country.

Last Night in Washington

Well, here I am, on my final day in Washington. It's been a good trip, lots of ups and downs, but in the end, I'm glad I came, but I'm more glad to be going home.

So, spent the day at Advancement Academy again. Bleh. Not much to say about it. I was definitely itching to get out of there by the end of the day.

After we got out, I grabbed my camera and headed out to see the rest of the monuments. Well, I didn't see ALL of them, as some were a ridiculous walk away, which I wasn't about to take last night. But I did go see the Korean War, Vietnam War, and WWI memorials, along with the Lincoln Memorial. Definitely was worth my walk there and it was a great way to end my time in Washington.

So, not going to say much, just...pictures!!

Here is the spot where Martin Luther King, Jr. stood when he gave his "I have a dream" speech. Very cool to stand there and look out.


This is a statue walking up to the Vietnam War Memorial.



This is the Vietnam War Memorial. It starts out as this wall no higher than my foot and grows to a wall that is twice as high as me. Everyone who died in that war is listed in chronological order in the order they died.

This is from the Korean War Memorial - so, that's your MASH war.

Again, part of the Korean War Memorial - statues of soldiers.

This is the outside of the Lincoln Memorial. Like most everything else in this city, it's just larger than life.
The man himself, Lincoln. The statue isn't as big as the Simpsons made me think it is.
Quote above the statue of Lincoln.


In side the Lincoln Memorial is a little museum of sorts with information on Lincoln and the memorial. I found this to be a particularly interesting picture.

Here's a picture of a picture of Peter, Paul, and Mary singing at the Lincoln Memorial.

I'm Tired

So, last day of User's Group and first day of Advancement Academy.

Started the day bright and early this morning. They were having a quick meeting for people who use the Time Card function in 2.6, so I went. Came down early for breakfast, and sat with Bart Showalter and Paul Ruffalo and had a good conversation. Then I was the only person who showed up for the time card meeting, but whatever. At least I showed up. Then we had a preview of the new CampusCall which is coming, CampusCall 3.1 (oh yeah Sandy, there's a new one coming, forgot to mention that on the phone, hehe, oops). Then we just had an open forum discussion which was good.

So, thus ended User's Group. I really enjoyed it and met a lot of people.

Came back in the afternoon for the start of Advancement Academy. My first impression was "wow, everyone's OLD." Huge age jump from User's Group to Advancement Academy.

So, we started off with a ridiculously boring Ethics sessions...and I do mean boring. Good lord.

Then I went to the "Trends in Annual Fund" discussion which I also found incredibly boring. Sorry Sandy, I thought it sucked...I'm not as gung ho as you :P

Then I was SUPPOSED to go to one session, but decided to go to another...I'm already not doing what the boss told me to...oops again :P Lol. I just couldn't sit through another boring session, it would have been the death of me. So, instead of going to the Annual Fund discussion, I went to the Telethon one. It was stuff I had heard before, but suddenly, this stuff actually CLICKED in my head, thank the lord, so I can start using it. 'Bout freakin' time too.

Anyway, that was the end of today and I'm tired. So, I'm going to get some food and then am going to have a nap. Or somethin'.

P.S. Got you some samples Sandy, yay!

Day 2 of being 22

Well, I spent Monday doing conference stuffy stuff. Now, I'm trying to remember back to yesterday and what we did...

Started the day off with breakfast, yum yum. Had quick speeches from all the big wigs at RuffaloCody, including Mr. Ruffalo himself, oooooo.

Had a session on the future of phonathons, which talked a lot about the new PCI requirements, which should be interesting to implement in the upcoming years. Then one guy spoke about how his school has implemented Planned Giving and Major Giving into their calling programs. And then a quick presentation from the support people during which I learned that there is an online support site, which I REALLY wish I had known about.

The afternoon was more sessions. Started with Tricks of the Trade. One of the presenters there was from Texas Tech and I can safely say that I am afraid of that lady. Makes me appreciate Sandy a billion times more than I already do. Then went into information about using Credit Cards with CampusCall. Our CCard provider wasn't on the list, so I went and talked to Bart (not Simpsons, damn) and he had never heard of it either, but wrote it down. Sat down with him and Paul Ruffalo for breakfast today and Paul had heard of it, so that's a good thing.

Then the 2 awesome sessions happened and unfortunately were both cut short :( First was a guy from Wilfrid Laurier who makes me want to go visit his call centre. The stuff he has done is just mind blowing. Then Anthony Arrington, a guy I've had lots of contact with over the last year, but never met did a very good presentation.

In the evening we headed to the International Spy Museum. That place was VERY cool. Unfortunately, they are squares and didn't let us take pictures :( My favourite part was watching the stuff at the end about the spies who've been caught. Really fascinating stuff.

After that, we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe. My first visit to a Hard Rock, so that was cool. And let me tell you, these Americans...they put a LOT of alochol in their drinks. The girl just kept pouring and pouring and pouring the vodka. My jaw dropped.

So yeah, that was my yesterday! I only have one crappy picture of the Hard Rock and I'm too lazy now that I'm 22 to upload it. So, just picture it in your mind. It'll be good for you to use your imagination.

Happy Birthday To Me!

So, apparently I turned 22 and got lazier than I was when I was 21. Fun stuff!

Anyway, got up early on my birthday. Went and registered for the two conferences I'm attending here in Washington and then had the day free until about 2:30pm. So, I walked down to the Capitol Building. Somehow it wasn't as impressed as I expected myself to be. Maybe I've just seen too much by now and am just not impressed anymore, I'm not sure. From there, I walked to the National Mall (well, ok, I crossed the street and there I was). I first visited the Air and Space Museum. I thought it would be the most interesting, but actually it was kind of boring. I'm sure Jeremy would have been in seventh heaven there, but I was just kinda wandering around. The one cool thing about that place was that they had a separate exhibit stored there from another museum under renovation called American Treasures. So, I got to see a bunch of cool pop culture type thingies. Anyway, I got bored with that museum pretty quick, so went to the National Museum of Natural History. It was cool, but after seeing all the real animals at the zoo, the stuffed ones just didn't cut it. So, from there, I headed back to the hotel and had about an hour to chill, which I needed after walking for about 5 hours, before my conference started.

Conference started with round table discussions at 2pm. They were very helpful but I wish I could have gone to about 3 more. I know I missed some great discussion. Then we had a quick social for about an hour where I met a few new people.

And that was mostly my day. Just relaxed for the rest of the night and watched a Simpsons marathon.

Anyway, here are my pictures from my b-day!


A picture for Michelle and Dad - John Phillip Sousa's Baton!

OMG! The sign from MASH!!! I saw it! It was right by it! Wheeeeee

This is the world largest crystal with zero imperfections. It's probably...oh, about the size of a volleyball.
The Hope Diamond.

This is some astronauts' mascot stuffed monkey that they took with them to space!


This is the ACTUAL original Wright Brother's plane. I didn't realize it still existed! But it did! The brother's left it to the museum in their estate.

A picture for Jeremy - Kermit the Frog!!

A pic for the brothers - R2D2!!! He's cute in real life too :)

And C3P0!! He's shorter than I expected.

This is some random sculpture from the sculpture garden. If one of my artsy friends could tell me just what the hell it is, that would be helpful.

Sorry, this picture is sideways. Anyway, this is me sitting on some steps in front of the Capitol Building and taking a picture of the view looking down the National Mall.

And here's the Capitol Building.

This is the Museum of American Indians. Architecture look familiar much?

Some random airplanes at the Air and Space Museum.

OK...

I admit it. I've been lazy.

But I promise a splendiferous post sometime today!

Another Day Down

Well, we wrapped up our CampusCall training today.

Which means that I have free time tomorrow, wheeeeeeeee.

Anyway, we had a group of 6 people plus the trainer for the training. It was a REALLY good group and I had a ton of fun with them.

The new version of CampusCall (the software we use in the call centre I manage) is SLICK. It's going to be really disappointing to go back to the old version until we upgrade. I'm really glad I took this training though. First of all, I learned a lot about the OLD version that I didn't know about. Second, I'm ready to start using the new version once we upgrade, so that should make it a lot quicker and smoother when the time comes. It was really helpful to take the training with others, because everybody had different questions and I felt that we all learned a lot from each other just based on our questions.

Anyway, a few of those people are staying until Thursday, but not everyone. But at least I'm going into tomorrow knowing at least a FEW people.

So, tomorrow I'm going to go register at 8am, and then the first session isn't until 2:45pm. So, I'm going to walk to the Capitol Building b/c of everything, I was getting most disappointed that I wasn't going to have time to go see that building. So, that's my destination tomorrow. If I run short on time to walk back to the hotel, I'll just grab a cab and get back in time for the sessions.

It should be a really good time. I've had fun so far and I'm hoping the fun just keeps coming.

Anyway, I'll update with more pictures tomorrow!!

More Crazy Packaging and Mystery Chips!

OK, the Twizzlers packaging for Nibs is just messed. And same with the Doritos/Ruffles packaging. The Ruffles reminds me of Lays.


Haven't seen a single bag of Old Dutch chips since I got here. I'm extremely brand loyal when it comes to my chips. So, the sev seemed to have these "Utz" chips as their regular potato chips...no Lays, no Old Dutch, nothing. So, I bought a small bag of them and we'll see if they're any good. I'll report on that later.


P.S. Yes, I'm eating too much junk food. I'm on vacation, so shush!

FIRE!!!

Fire alarm went off. So, evacuated the hotel, and by the time I had walked around the front of the hotel, everything appeared to be fine again. So, I don't know what it was all about.

I do know that I took the time to grab my room key and wallet but it didn't even occur to me to grab my passport. Which probably would have been a good idea.

Report from Washington

Hey All!

Well, today I officially started my conference. I spent about 6 hours in training for the new upgrade of the software I work with at work, CampusCall. I can safely say that the new software is sweeeetttttt. It's gonna be depressing going back to the old, crappy one at work until we upgrade, hehe.

The group I'm with is lots of fun. There's only 6 of us and the trainer, and I'm the only Canadian. Went for lunch with 3 of them and that was fun. It's really fun talking to the other call centre managers. It's such a different industry, that it's not one where you have a bunch of people to interact with who do the same thing. One guy was a student caller, supervisor, etc, at the University of Kansas and when he graduated, headed to George Mason. That was just in January, so he's a youngun' like me. His call centre sounds horrible, lol! I thought mine was bad...he's in a TRAILER. He's worked there since January and since then, they've moved the entire call centre TWICE...just into subsequent trailers. I feel bad for the guy.

Anyway, finished that around 4:30 and then gave work a call to let them know how AWESOME the new CampusCall is gonna be. Went for supper downstairs. It was ok, but I think I'll go out from now on. Tiny, tiny menu.

After supper I just went for a wander around DC and then came back. I wasn't sure about the weather holding, so I decided not to head to the monuments. Right now I'm planning on heading to the monuments tomorrow night to finish my tour of them. It looks like the weather will hold, so that's a plus.

Anyway, took pics again during my wander of DC, so here they are...with commentary of course!


Some school of art. I dunno, the name of it is in the next picture :P Right by my hotel. Not sure if it's famous or not, thought maybe my artsy friends (Cassandra) might know of it or somethin'.


Name of the art school.


Remember that office building I posted pics of?? I can't remember the name of it, but I posted a picture of the name of it...lol. It's the one right beside the White House. Anyway, I noticed today that it appears to have a tiny, tiny moat with no water in it :) Just some construction equipment.


Sekrit Service dude in the trees on the lawn of the White House...O_O


I don't know why...but I find this disturbing.


I found a 7/11!!! Looks really classy on the outside, but it's one of the grubbiest I've ever seen on the inside. Also, it appears to be on the campus of George Washington University. You can't even tell that you're suddenly on a campus...nothing like the U of S.


I think this is the prettiest picture I've taken so far. It definitely looked pretty in real life.

The Octagon! Explanation of it in the next picture.


Explanation of the Octagon. I found it quite interesting, and enjoyed the part about us burning down the White House. Ahhhhh....


Well, that was today!! Like I said, hopefully the rest of the monuments tomorrow night :) Spy Museum is Monday night, I do believe, but don't quote me on that.

*moans*

Most.

Comfortable.

Bed.

Ever.

We Need These

Every crosswalk has a countdown until the light changes. As a pedestrian, I have to say...I LOVE THIS. We need to implement this.