Valentine's Day

Surprised with a restaurant she couldn't guess right away.  Wuhahahaha.  Success!

Sore This Morning...

Woke up with my arms feeling pretty sore this morning.  Thought about for a whole day then it hit me.  It must have been the indoor skydiving.

…Pushing air is hard work!

Indoor skydiving!

Today we had a team morale event today (yes, our team is probably getting too much morale :)).  All in all, it was pretty fun and a pretty neat experience. 

Some tips and notes:

• It was pretty hard to smile gracefully as when you open your mouth, the air would start forcing you to drool… but then if you didn't smile, the camera pictures doesn't turn out as nice
• You can watch their videos and think it is simple… but it is not
• The experience is totally different from 'real' tandem skydiving (ie. Those where you fall out of a plane)

Team Lunch of Meat Meat Meat!

Today we had a team lunch at a Brazilian Grill.  Mmmmm… Yummy times.

The good: Delicious.  Team liked it a lot.  We were all lethargic after because of food coma hitting.

The bad: The bill came out a tad more expensive than I thought it would.  When you have a big team I guess the numbers add up.  Not to mention those $6 lemonades!  The mandatory gratuity really puts a dent when you have a big team.

Mashiko!

CS Friend came for a visit to the west coast to ski and hang out.  So she drove down to meet up to go eat at Mashiko.    Best part was that it wasn't me who suggested it :).  Our menu today:

After dinner, which was pretty late.  CS Friend decides to drive back up.  Soldier she is!

Kumamoto Oysters

Geoduck Sashimi inside lemon

Tako and shinguku with miso paste

Uni on half shell

Rainbow trout sashimi on shiso and ponzu sauce

Sea snail

Coho salmon tartar with poached egg

Poached abalone

Ikura with soft tofu

Tuna poke with seaweed salad and seasame

Sunma, black cod, coon striped shrimp, herring, albacore toro

Lamb curry

Oyster Miso Soup

Knochi

Almost at work…

So this morning, I find out that my car battery has died.  Which means even though I was back, I was still a couple hours away from work.  So I missed my first couple meetings… and my boss laughed at me. 

This year might be a tough one for the Year of the Pig…

Lift Off!!!

Attempt number 2.. Lift off! 

…Success!

Locked in warm house

Ice quakes and severe wind warnings was the topic of the day.  Good thing the house had heat, so I stayed inside and didn't leave.

Work from home week

Waking up, I called to rebook my flight.  Luckily I connected right through, but the first flight would be Friday, and it would have to be a connecting flight.  Given that, I decided to just ask for a Sunday direct flight, and be done with it.

I would find out later this was a smart move.  Apparently all flights were grounded on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday the airport was on reduced service, such that Thursday would be their first day of full service.  Then on Saturday, there was a glitch in the system so there were massive delays for Air Canada. 

With the failed attempt to leave Toronto, and basically grounded for a week, I ended up having a working from home week.  Converted all of my meetings to remote meetings.  The phone meetings and conference call meetings we had with SVC for the past few years really made it feel like just another day.

However, the remote 1-1s are not as easy as it looks.  But somehow I managed it.

Attempt to leave Toronto.. FAIL…

So going a bit early to the airport for my flight, I needed up being at Toronto Pearson Airport for 12 hours… from 4pm to  4am.  Only to be in still in Toronto at the end of it all.

Transcript of events:

Got to the airport early, waited at the gate and the plane kept delaying.  We finally boarded, only to be put inside the cabin and sat there for hours as we were grounded.  Then finally at 2am in the morning the captain said this was a failed attempt and we went back out.

Luckily I had my Nexus so I didn’t need to wait in line to clear customs (I felt bad for those who had to wait in that line).  Since I checked in luggage though, it was pretty messed up as there were lines for people trying to understand what is happening with their luggage at baggage claim.  There were easily 1000s of people camped around and luggage was just lying around everywhere - as some folks were able to come back to claim their luggage, some couldn't leave because their luggage would be deemed abandoned, and some were missing their luggage because it got loaded into the plane, and the ground crew didn't take it out.

After waiting half an hour in line, it was realized that the luggage never made it on the plane and so after an hour, it started coming out.  Lucky me I guess…

When I got out of baggage claim, thought I would rebook my ticket - but turns out 1000s of people had that same idea, and seeing a long snake line around the floor, and the Air Canada phone line basically jammed, quickly I gave up on that. 

Sent a mail saying I won't be at work, paid a King's ransom for a taxi ride back home, called it a night.