vancouver + snow = massive mayhem

why did it take me an hour to get to west van? someone ran their car into a telephone pole.

whaddaya mean snow!?

so it is snowing like crazy in vancouver right now. nuttiness! i am actually really excited since i didn't expect this much snow and i was starting to miss it.

well, work is fine, but i don't like how it takes up so much of my time (i know, get used to it). it doesn't help that i am tutoring still, but it makes me less stressed about money. i finally have the jetta up and running again, although she needs new tires. i am already formulating a plan to sell her after the new year. it will be sad letting go, but i certainly don't need a car and i don't need to be spending so much money keeping her on the road. plus, the money would help take a chunk out of my debt and possibly go towards a new computer, since that is what i could really use. thank goodness for the weekends. catherine and i had another awesome day wandering around the city. the short version: croisscram at cafe deux soleil, value village (savers), army navy, lookout at harbour centre, tim hortons double double, sky train to new west, snow starts, new west quay and free stuffed animals, another army navy, hobo gloves, blow me pin, casino boat, asian noodles on broadway, back up the lookout at harbour centre, lots of snow, casino in richmond, avalanche beating the canucks, b-line home, freezing cold bed, the end.

wtf jetta!?

*warning: the following may be viewed as bitching and moaning... that is because it is both bitching and moaning*

today was stupid. why? well it's not so much sunday that is stupid, but how i let sunday kick me around that was stupid. first off i slept in real late cause i was up real late last night (this is neither bitching nor moaning). i got ready to tutor and hopped in the jetta to drive up to west van (side note: you might think that you would drive over to west van, but west van is actually the west part of north van. so, i drive "up" to west van. not to be confused with the west end or the west side.) two blocks into the excursion it was obvious one of the cylinders was miss firing (this is the 3rd time this has happened in a month and i've already put 1800 bucks into it). so, i park my car and call up my tutors and my tutor boss and give them the good news. my tutor boss is not very happy with me and i get the feeling he thinks my car is actually fine and this is just an excuse to get out of tutoring. so, now it's off on the buses, which goes just fine until i try and go to my second tutor... i was going to explain the whole fiasco, but it isn't really worth talking about. needless to say there was a lot of walking, running, barely missing buses, and more walking. i am seriously starting to think about selling my car. i almost never use it and it is nothing but a money pit. in the meantime i am going to take it back to the dealership tomorrow and this time i'm putting on my angry face. for those of you not familiar with my angry face... well, it's just pretty darn angry.

all clouds and no sun makes geoff a dull boy all clouds and no sun...

damn you 49th parallel! there is something seriously wrong with driving south at noon and having to put the visor down because the sun is just barely above the horizon. the fact that the sun comes up 7:30 and sets at 4:30 is brutal, and it's only the middle of november. thank goodness for a partly sunny day today. i walked down to main street and bought some cool stuff, like a hoodie. the oppressive darkness/cold/rain is not making the transition to 'holed up in my office all day' lifestyle any easier.

i have good news and bad news. the good news is i'll be in colorado for christmas (21st - 27th). the bad news is i'll only be in denver for 3.5 hours (layover on the 27th). so, if anyone is interested in a ski trip to vail on the 22nd let me know. otherwise i'll wave as i fly over. or for you gj residents in the audience, maybe a trip to powderhorn could be arranged.

my new room:

routine and poutine

so, i am officially a yuppie. it all started with a new bed from IKEA and now includes espresso every morning and a half hour commute on the b-line and the sky train. anyway, the transition to young urban professional is tough, but as long as i pretend it isn't permanent it's ok. the job gets better every day and i'm actually starting to feel useful, if not always knowledgeable. i got my first designing assignment. i get/have to design a pseudo autoclave for the fuel cell manifolds we make. it's like a fancy sandwich press. in fact i might patent it (assuming i can actually make one) and open a panini shop.

thanks to catherine i have a cool new friend (almost as cool as catherine herself, but let's not get carried away). his name is cameron and he's an indie rocking badass, who just happens to love old school computer games. soon we are going to hang out and play xcom, master of orion, and xwing vs. tie fighter on his network of pentium 100 computers. i know you're all jealous, especially bob. by the way, i enjoy everyones comments. it is nice to hear from all you folks back in the states. speaking of the states, i am slightly prouder to be an american after last tuesday (sorry republican friends of mine).

a picture of luca and i having a dance party on halloween:

holy tiredness

what a exhausting week. so, i started my job on wednesday. the first day was honestly terrible. i really didn't know what to do with myself and everyone was too busy to waste a whole day walking me through everything. it doesn't look like i'm going to get to do much designing, which is really what i want to do. thankfully each day has been better than the previous. it will just take me some time to figure out the system. i like the people i work with and i think i'll get some really good experience out of it. my job title is 'project manager', which means i manage projects. essentially this company is an outsourced machine shop. there is a relatively large staff of machinists. my job is to make sure the part gets made correctly and in a timely fashion. it is a lot of paperwork (computer work), but there is lots of variety and the atmosphere is pretty relaxed. today we had a lunch-time trivia competition and i won two tickets to the canucks game next week (i bet you didn't know that the first heart transplant came from a baboon). now, i know, it's a canucks game, but considering i have watched exactly zero hockey this season i am really excited to go to a game.

in other turning-my-life-up-side-down news, i am now living in a new house. it is a huge heritage house and the people seem great. i haven't actually spent much time here yet because of work, tutoring, and hanging out with the c-pan. i will write more about the house later when i have had more time to digest and i'm not so brutally tired.

so, i promised an explanation for the halloween photos. first off, i have a canadian flag because i was dressing up like a canadian (toque, molson, flannel shirt, flag). if only i had some moon boots i would have blended right in. anyway, the night was a lot of fun, although there was a fair amount of drama (pronounced like dramamine without the -mine). some was good and some was bad and i'll leave it at that. i hope all is well with the rest of you (both of you that read this). come back for another installment of "geoff's canadian adventure".