Yowza, time for an update!

Holy cow, I can't believe how busy I've been over the past month. I have really dedicated myself to the company as we are severely short staffed in every department.

I've been working long weeks and long days to try and help out where I can. It takes quite the drain on me, so when I get home I pretty much just veg out for a few mins, eat something and then I'm off to bed. Barely time to do anything.

A couple of weeks ago I had a $134 cup of coffee. Grrr... I'm still mad about it. It was a Sunday and I felt like going for a drive. So I went to Starbucks first and then started driving out towards the airport. My company is building a new office and hangar structure across on the other side of the airport (we currently rent out our facilities) so I decided I'd head out to go and check on the progress. Well as I turn down this long straight road I notice a guy running out from the side of the road, past a tripod and continuing to the center of the road waving his hands at me. I quickly realized it was a freaking cop. He had seen me from a distance and proceeded to run past his radar gun, and he couldn't have looked at it for more than a couple of seconds as he kept running and made his way into the middle of the road. I was doing 71 in a 50. But the killer thing of it, was that everywhere else along that road the speedlimit is 60, so I didn't even think I was speeding. He didn't want my registration or anything, he just wanted my drivers license and then in a matter of 3 mins had given me my ticket. He then ran back out to the road and pulled over another guy. This was purely a quota fill day for them, as every time they walked back out onto the road they were pulling people over! It was ridiculous! Such a wide open and abandoned road that has a much lower than average speed limit, of course they knew they'd make money that day. Grrrr... I still haven't decided if I'm going to pay it or fight it.

Aside from that I really haven't been up to too much else, thanks mainly to my long hours at work.

I just received a package in the mail from my good buddy Ian, who I've managed to get hooked onto the OC! He had burned for me every single episode to date, and so today I'm not ashamed to say that I spent my morning and early afternoon watching the first 6 episodes of the OC from season 1. Ahhh... this show kicks ass, it's like my guilty little pleasure.

Anyways, I'm gonna get going now, I believe I hear the OC calling my name!

I'll try and post more frequently, but there's not too much action these days. Until next time!

A Rally Legend put out to pasture...

Litterally!

Well, the sad day has come. My 1990 Subaru Legacy - turned Championship Winning Rally Car (1st in the 2003 BC TSD Rally Driver Championship) - has been sold.

In Calgary I really can't be rallying and my current job really doesn't allow for enough free time to continue the sport. So for the past few months I've been attempting to sell the car. This past week we found a buyer. It has gone to the owner's husband of the horse stables my Mom keep her horses at. (Get it!?? pastures... horses... you know.. nudge nudge..) newho... so she's found a new owner who will treat her right I'm sure... *sniff sniff*.. so many found memories, and so many scars and scratches from tweaking up that daily driver into a rally machine...

The end of an era! Well.. until I decide to be stupid enough to rally my wrx. =D

The end of nights!

Well, it is quite possible that in a matter of a couple of days, I will never see another night shift at work.

I'm just finishing off training my replacement this week and if all goes according to plan, Friday night will be my last night shift.

What's next? Well, not quite full time flying yet. I'll be starting day shifts in the office while they train a new girl in the office who will ultimately replace my new temporary position. So it could be 3-4 weeks of daytime office work Monday to Friday with pretty much zero flying, but at the end of that stint, provided the new office girl works out, I'll be free! Out of office for good! (Until someone gets fired or leaves and I somehow get dragged back into the office to help cover the gaping hole).

But it's looking good. And I'm excited about the prospect that around May 1st I will move into a full time flying position. I've never had that luxury before, as my previous job also required other office work. So I will once and for all be flying as my full job status. Ahh... although I still wont be counting my eggs until everything's all said and done with come the end of April.

Is too much credit a bad thing??

Evidently YES!

I recently applied for a new credit card because my current Visa is a Vancity Credit Union Card, which just doesn't seem prudent to have anymore considering I'm living in Calgary.

So I decided that I'd look for a points card of some sort and I opted for a free Visa card offered by RBC. The Visa doubles as a Starbucks card it will give you 1% of what you spend on the Visa back in Starbucks cash. Not too shabby for a free card.

So I applied and earlier this week got a letter in the mail. DECLINED!

I was floored. I have perfect credit and was quite shocked at this letter. I immediately called up RBC to find out what the problem was. They pretty much told me that my debt ratio was too high. I yelled back at them, "I have no debt!". But I began to realize what they were talking about. I have a rather large limit on my current visa (greater than 10k) and I also have a large line of credit (again quite high) through my TD bank out here. I actually did a credit check of myself online to really get to the bottom of this. And yes, simply put, I have enough disposable credit that I could in a matter of seconds/minutes spend more in credit than my current salary! So that's what they were getting at with the debt ratio.

So my next plan of action is to talk to my current Visa and TD bank to get my limits lowered so that I have far less "available credit".

So that's my rant on that subject! After I get it all sorted out I'm going to reapply and they'd better accept!!!

Holy, it's been a while!

I have been quite busy the past couple of weeks, I never got around to posting anything!

Lets see, the hi-lights. I'm now totally moved into my basement room and things are going well there, I've been working my ass off lately, had a flight to Vancouver for a pickup only though, and I'm training a new guy for night shifts this week.

So... to detail a little further:

I got a flight to Vancouver and we were going to have about 1hr on the ground. I called up my folks because I'm in the middle of all my taxes and wanted my Dad to come with some of my tax stuff from last year and so I could show him some of my tax stuff from this year. It's a complicated tax year for me: I have 2 T4's, my own flying business and write offs to work out for last year due to the traffic plane flying (I was a contract pilot), my moving expenses, some flight training expenses, and I made some money on some stocks too... it should be fun. At any rate, I met up with the family at the airport and Justin came out as well to say hello. Seeing as how he's off to Japan pretty soon it was likely the last time I'll see him before he jets off to the land of the rising sun. While I was showing the family and Justin the aircraft, we look up only to see Gordon Campbell and a swarm of executives loading onto a chartered aircraft right in front of us. My Mom promptly sticks her head out the door of the plane and snaps a picture; thanks Mom, how professional =D. I kicked family and friends out before the passengers arrived and it was a bumpy flight back. Actually, coming in was quite bumpy as well. I flew the first leg to Vancouver and we were getting hit pretty good, and we even flew through a bit of hail. My landing was likely the best I have ever had and I was quite happy about it! On the approach back into Calgary it was snowing and there was a low overcast layer. We flew through this for only a few minutes but it was enough for a serious amount of ice to develop on the aircraft. I took pictures because if we had flown through it for any longer it could have become a hazard. (If anyone would like to see the pics, just email me).

On to some good news here. I'm training a new guy for the night shift in the office, and we have just had another guy start on nights as well. What does this mean? Well, I'll be able to step out of nights and within the next 30-45 days I should be seeing the end of my office days here at AirSprint and I'll be transitioning to full time flying! That will be great when it happens and I've got my fingers crossed. But in order for me to get out of the office fully, there are other people being trained for the daytime office shifts and they have to be fully up to speed as well. There is a chance that even after I go full time flying, I could be called back into the office for the odd shift to help out. But hopefully everyone gets trained and up to speed quickly and I can start to see a lot more flying and little to NO office!

So yeah, there you have it. Oh yeah, it's freaking cold here in Calgary. Damn you westcoasters.

Oh, and the owner of the company flew back in from Mexico last night after a family vacation. He calls me up at 3am to say he can't get a cab at the main terminal, so he asks if I can take the keys out of his desk and go and pick him and his family up in his truck at the main terminal! Talk about pressure. I get outside and there is 3 inches of fresh snow out there!!! I drove super carefully, picked him and his family up, and he was tired and didn't want to drive, so I DROVE him back to our offices, where they loaded up seperate cars and drove home after. Talk about crazyness, driving the boss in unplowed snow covered and nearly invisible roads in his HUGE truck. I was glad when that was over.

Haha.. I laugh about it now, but had I parked it in a ditch, this blog entry would have likely started a whole lot differently!

IKEA!

I went, I saw, I conquered.

I had a successful trip to IKEA yesterday with my roommate Mike.

The Goal: To obtain bedroom furniture for my long anticipated move to the basement.

Results: A few bills shorter, but a nice little bedroom has been constructed.

So after spending a good couple of hours wandering the IKEA in southern Calgary my roommate and I proceeded to the furniture pick up isles and successfully loaded up a cart fully with my new bedroom. The items purchased included: A dresser, tall bookcase, small table/desk, simple computer chair. Upon returning home from IKEA we promptly opened up a few beers and began the construction process. The two of us had most of the furniture constructed quite quickly as we were able to create a production line of sorts. First constructed was the dresser which fits nicely into a little nook in the corner of my room. On top of the 4 drawer birch finished unit went my TV, VCR and DVD player. Next up was my tall 6 shelf bookcase also finished in IKEA's birch. The problem I was having with this unit was that I couldn't' put it up against the wall that I wanted to, because the heat control unit would be blocked if I tried to get it close to the wall. Solution! I took out an exacto knife and did some careful measurements and cut out a little rectangular section from the back part of the bookshelf that was made out of particle board. We placed it up against the wall and it was a perfect fit with the heating control unit poking through. I'll just place a picture or something in front of it and reach behind anytime I need to adjust the heat.

The desk and chair I constructed today. I could only get the desk in white as the size I wanted in birch was completely sold out (obviously very popular for a $19 table top).

I've taken most of my things and moved in, still a few things though remain upstairs in my previous room.

The room had actually been ready for a couple of weeks, but due to my hectic schedule of office and flying work and then getting sick, I hadn't been able to do much about it.

So I've now spent a couple of nights down there and I'm quite happy to have my own official space...... even if it has been 7months coming. =D

A couple of quirks about the new room. It's direclty under the kitchen. So I can faintly hear the kitchen drawers being opened and closed. I can hear the water from the bathroom closest to me and if people are stomping loudly above me, I can hear it as well due to the hardwood floors in the house. Not too bad though, quite manageable.

I'll try and take a couple of pictures soon so you can get an idea of my quaint little space.

Next up is a new bed. A buddy of ours works for a major retailer and can get us top of the line models for extremely, and I mean extremely good deals... like 25% of retail. We just need to show up at the warehouse and load it into the back of our vehicle (totally legit, don't worry!). So for now though I continue to sleep on a little IKEA double mattress on the floor that I've been borrowing since I got here.

Alrighty... back to my first night of 5 in the office.

2 Day Prairie Tour

I'm back from an interesting trip.

Made even more interesting by the fact that I had the beginnings of a head cold and had decided to tempt fate and try and fly. BAD MOVE. My sinus' were not too happy with me. I was able to help minimize the pain by doing slower descents and trying to unplug my ears as much as possible. Anyways, so... about the trip.

The plane was to pretty much shuttle one of our clients around to many small towns in Alberta and Saskatchewan. His company produces pumps for oil rigs and he has stores all around north america and for these couple of days he was hitting up the prairies.

So... because he wanted to go to so many places on the first day we actually needed two planes to accommodate, otherwise the pilots would fly too much in one day if they were to do it all on one plane. So after a morning flight with a different client to Regina, we went directly to Lloydminster and picked up the pump guy and his group.

That first day we flew to Provost AB and then to Estevan SK. Let me tell you this, all of the places we visited were small towns and were totally unlike the big cities. In Provost we had an older fellow come up to us after we landed and offered to give us a ride into town if we needed one. We were hungry and wanted to grab some lunch so we accepted his offer and he drove us into town were we ate, and then an hour later he came to pick us up again! We chatted with him for a bit, he was an old timer at the airport that had seen his fair share of the aviation industry. That town was very friendly. Once in Estevan we were staying the night, so after getting the plane all settled for the night we cabbed into town to the Days Inn. Thank god this place was decent. It was actually just renovated at the beginning of February and the hotel was really nice. I met up with the Captain down in the hotel bar/lounge for some dinner. I saw he was drinking and so hell, that meant I could drink too! So I got a beer, but quickly realized my sense of taste wasn't the best because of my cold and it probably could have been water and I wouldn't have known the difference. At this bar we looked and up on a mini stage they had 3 little jeopardy podiums set up. It was jeopardy trivia night. My captain, who's a younger guy and a lot of fun immediately signs up for it! Later we found out though that it was for Rock and Roll Jeopardy and he wasn't comfortable with that, so after seeing a few contestants go through the questions he decided to bolt and ditch the game! But that wasn't before our clients came and sat down 2 tables from us. Kind of funny, they were staying in the same hotel (obviously cause it was the only semi-decent one in town). We kinda said hi to them and we each awkwardly ignored each other. =D

That night after dinner I went back into the hotel room and tried to figure out a way to help relieve some of my sinus pains. I tried a technique that I had googled using my blackberry while we were in Provost. The method was to take a cup and place a napkin in the bottom, get some hot water and pour some into the cup to soak the paper napkin, then quickly dump the water and all you're left with is a steaming cup of napkin. You cup it up against your ear and let the steam work it's way into your ear and relieve the pressure. In theory this sounded great. But it didn't really do the trick, I did feel it getting close, but not close enough. I then decided to have a really hot shower. So I did, a good 30mins worth. It defiantly loosened up the sinus' and made me feel a little better, but still not 100%. I popped some pills and went to bed.

The next morning we were at the airport quite early and getting the plane ready to go for the day. I couldn't believe what came running out towards me on the airport ramp. It was a cat! He was quite friendly, he was the "airport cat". There to keep the mouse population down. =D

He was a funny character, very vocal and wanting attention. As we were loading the passengers onto the plane he came trotting up beside the aircraft and before I could close the door the little bugger jumped up the stairs and into the damn airplane! I was able to stop him and take him outside, but he kept trying to get in. I ended up picking him up and then walking him back to the terminal building and throwing him inside. The clients all had a good laugh about it.

The second day consisted of us flying to Swift Current SK, Kindersly SK, Red Deer AB and then returning empty back to Calgary. Most of those stops were fairly uneventful. We never left the airport at any of them and just hung around. At least they all had someplace we could go and sit down in and just relax and wait for the clients to finish their tours. I was feeling a little less sinus pain that day but my nose was running all day and was still quite unpleasant.

After landing in Calgary I made sure I wasn't going to be scheduled to fly for a couple of days so that I could recover. I was given 3 sick days and I now don't go back in to work the night shift until Tuesday. So I've got a couple days off to recover, hopefully. As I right this I'm still quite congested and have a bit of a headache. My ears are also still a bit plugged, but I'll clear them out over time as this sickness leaves my body.

I didn't bother taking any pics this time cause it was all the same view.... FLAT!

Pics from last flight

Here are a couple of pictures I took on the flight to Invermere.

First pic is just before our descent overtop the rockies:




This pic is of our aircraft on the ground in Invermere:




Final pic is us climbing out of the mountain vallies on our way to Edmonton:




Hope you enjoyed!

Back in Calgary

So I'm back from my couple of days on the road.

Let me say that the laptop was a wise wise decision. I downloaded a storm up there and even got some movies to watch on the bus ride back to Calgary. (we landed in Edmonton, but the plane was to stay there and I needed to be back in Calgary)

So I download "Napoleon Dynamite" and of course what movie have they selected to play on the bus ride back?? You guessed it. Oh well, the bus ride was pretty good back, relaxed a bit.. played with the laptop for a little bit. Not too bad, much much better than a greyhound, it's like an executive coach.

So I got to fly the plane back into Invermere and my captain says to me just before starting the decent: "I think we should practice an emergency decent." I think I had said yes before he had even finished his sentence. What is this you might ask? Well... the result is getting the airplane down from altitude at the fastest rate safely possible. This would be the case in say the event of a cabin depressurization and we want to get to an altitude that we can safely breathe the oxygen without masks. Or for any other reason that would require us to get on the ground as soon as possible, perhaps a medical emergency. Well, in order to do this we can't just simply push the nose down and go screaming down, because we'll exceed the maximum speed of the aircraft very quickly. So, what this aircraft is designed for is that we can slow down enough that we can lower the landing gear (320km/hr or so) and once the gear is safely extended the aircraft can then increase it's speed to it's limit, but because there is so much drag caused from the lowered landing gear, we can get a much greater rate of decent. So, at about 12,000' over Invermere, we popped the gear down and I pushed that nose down and oh my god did that plane descend. We were going so quickly downwards that I didn't even go as fast as the aircraft could go in fear of not being able to safely pull it out of the dive. Because I was hand flying the aircraft at such a high rate of speed even the simple movement of the control wheel (yoke) required both hands and a lot of force. It was just a pure rush, we were down from that altitude in less than 2 mins, which is an incredible rate of descent, which is about 5 times faster than your average airliner would normally do. It was all safe and a great learning experience, so don't think we were reckless, but at the same time... boy oh boy was it a blast!

So yeah, a great couple of flights. The captain was quite impressed with my flying and was ready to sign a form saying that he approves of my flying and that would help me move along in the company, BUT the fact of the matter is that I'm still not supposed to be flying the aircraft in the manner we were and therefore it would have been incriminating to him! So I reminded him of that and he was thankful of that, but the fact he feels that way is a great feeling. Can't wait to get my takeoff/landing ban removed!

Ok... time to maybe play some poker.

Flying a bit!

Been flying the past couple of days and I have one more to go.

I'm actually in Edmonton right now on a layover. At the good 'ol Ramada downtown, right next to the executive airport here in edmonton. We left Calgary early afternoon and headed to Invermere BC, just on the other side of the Rocky Mountains and I got to fly it into the little airstrip they have there right next to the mountains in a valley. Great area, took a bunch of pics. We were just skimming the mountains at some points, it was awesome! Just like the flying I used to do in college, but we were going much much faster today... =D Try cresting the peaks of mountains at 500km/hr! Fun!

So I'm in the hotel tonight and tomorrow we fly back to Invermere, to pick up a completely different client and fly them around a bit, but we end up in Edmonton again. So I'll be taking a bus home tomorrow night, or I'll be spending another night and then taking a commuter flight home on Tuesday.

Yesterday was pretty simple, just to Regina and back. Nothing too spectacular about it.

So yeah, that's the latest... Oh and of course I'm on my laptop taking advantage of my hispeed internet connection and am downloading a few things at once.. =D

Rollcall!!

Just curious who still (if at all) reads my blog!

So, please leave a comment (you dont have to have an account, just post anonymously).

Tell me who you are, what's shakin, and if you like the blog or have any suggestions!

So lets see them comments!!!!!

Laptop!

I have had my new laptop (errr... "Notebook") since Monday and have neglected to write anything about it!

Actually, my last blog entry was written from it, but of course I seem to only really get around to writing in this blog mainly from work when I have a few minutes to spare or am taking a break. So that's where this entry is being made, from work.

So I've just returned after 5 nights off and during that time I had spent most of it playing around with the laptop.

I got a Toshiba Satellite A70-ML1 and so far I'm pretty happy with it. I've also recently gone out and gotten a wireless mouse and carrying case too. The freaking 15.4" widescreen doesn't fit most of the laptop cases, so I had to get a rather large one. Which is ok now that I think about it, it's got lots of extra pockets for me to stick stuff when I go on my flights and expecting a layover.

I've used that computer all over the house now and I got a deal with a free wireless router that has so far been working flawlessly and I'm getting smoking fast downloads anywhere in the house.

I think we might be getting a call from Telus. I must say that I've downloaded a fair bit of tv shows, movies, and music albums. I think I'll slow down a bit...

So the main reason I got the laptop was because it was time for a computer upgrade at any point and given the fact that I've already been on many flights that had layovers, it just makes sense that I would get a portable computer that I could take with me and have something to entertain me while I am cooped up in a hotel room somewhere. Now I can be cooped up and at least be making some money playing poker or something.. =D

Oh how that woulda made Winnipeg much more enjoyable... =D

Who hasn't seen the Poker craze?

And I'm not talking about my own little adventures but rather the entire Poker phenomenon that has taken over in the past couple of years.

Today I'm sitting here in front of the TV on one of my day's off and I catch the last five minutes of the Poker Million Masters from Europe. Shucks I tell myself, I would have liked to have watched that. I change a couple of channels over at the end of the show and come across Rogers Sportsnet West. Can you guess what's on? Poker! The final table in a Caribbean tourney that I've never heard of. Nor do I recognize any of these players, but it's still poker and of course I'm watching in the background as I type out this blog entry.

The game of poker has become much more commercialized and more revered to as "sport" over these past few years. Some people say that the movie Rounders helped to fuel the craze. It stars Matt Damon and Ed Norton in a great poker movie that is centered around the high stakes of No limit texas hold 'em poker.

For any of you not familiar with Texas hold 'em.. well... google it!

**I just got called into work on my available to fly days... someone's sick in the office so i'm heading in to cover for them for a few hours until the night guy comes in... dangit!

***Ok, I'm back. Yeesh, that was far longer than anticipated.

So.. anyways.. Texas Hold 'Em. It has really taken center stage over the past few years. Probably the biggest influential factor was when I started to watch the World Series of Poker. It is by far the biggest event in poker held each year in Las Vegas and Binion's Horseshoe Casino. It's the biggest event in poker where in the main event of the Series (No Limit Texas Hold 'Em) anybody can walk in, plunk down the $10,000 CASH entry fee and play in the tourney. It has grown exponentially over the past few years. There have been so many entries that last year the first place prize was an unprecedented $5,000,000!!

So after watching TV and seeing these games more and more, friends and I had started nearly weekly poker games. We even have our own felt and decent enough poker chips. Good times, good times. But alas, I'm not in the lower mainland anymore and therefore can not take part in the festivities, except for when I make it home. So I have taken more to Internet poker and have played quite a bit since I've been in Calgary. So many people are getting into it that poker sites are popping up all over the place. The money is there for the taking, as most of the people are signing up to see what it's like and really don't have a good enough idea about the game. I'm sorry to say but I've taken hundreds of dollars away from these people. But hey, you shouldn't be playing poker with money that you can't afford to lose. And that is my motto to anyone else thinking about starting to play poker for serious cash. Do NOT play with more than you are willing to lose. Start small, build up a bankroll, and gradually progress up to the various stakes of poker. It took me nearly 6 months before I had played enough at the smaller tables that I felt comfortable moving up the stakes ladder and once that occurred and I had a good handle on my game, I was able to pull in some pretty good supplemental income doing it.

The game is fun, and it's not gambling! I've said it many times in this blog and I've said it many times to people that I meet. Especially with Texas Hold 'Em, there is a lot to do with strategy, the ability to read others and the confidence in yourself and your hand to make anything work.

So, that's enough of that. See if you can turn on the tube and find any poker, I bet you wont have to look to far. :)

Returned from Vancouver

Ahhh... a great few days off and away from the every day grind of AirSprint.

I had 5 days off in Vancouver, after I got stuck pulling a 6 day work week and had to switch my plans and plane tickets for my return. What did I do you ask? Well.....

Day 1 (Sunday)
I've just finished a 12hr night shift and after getting dropped off at the airport I await my Westjet flight home at 8am. The flight was completely empty with only about 16 passengers on board. We made it to Vancouver in good time. My folks picked me up from the airport and we went home. I was greated by Apache (our jack russell terrier) and he seemed not to care too much that I was home and was more interested in the treats my dad had leftover in his coat pocket. I retired to the guestroom to have a "nap" so that I'd at least be functional for the day. After a couple of hours I awoke VERY groggy and went for lunch with John and Cindy. Japanese, where I had the usual (Chicken Teri Don)... I mean, what the hell else am I going to have? Then it was home to relax for a bit and then dinner with the family at Earls. I was having a very hard time trying to maintain conciousness. After dinner I connected with the Poker crew and we met up at Justin's place for some good 'ol fashioned pokering! It was great to be back at the ever shedding green felt playing the cards like old times. Much of the night was a blur as I decided to drink a few glasses of rye and gingerale/coke. I distincly recall Garmy walking away with a large sum of cash, but more than anything I recall Sy and I's game after everyone else had left. 10 bucks was slapped down in a winner take all battle royale. Do I really have to say who won? I mean.. he had no chance! =D Then it was home to sleep, and I needed it.

Day 2 (Monday)
I'm awakened early by my Dad barging in the door saying that it's my Visa company calling. I had just ordered a laptop at Futureshop online and they had just declined Futureshop's verification process because my address information didn't match what was on file! Freaking VISA! I sorted that mess out quickly and got a hold of Futureshop and made sure they got things underway again. The rest of the day was spent being lazy and trying to relax as much as possible. Later that night was dinner with John and Cindy at the Olive Garden in Langley. Mmmm... Ravioli de Portebella... good stuff. And a shared bottle of Robert Mondavi Private Selection Red, very good stuff! I was soooo tired though I fell asleep on the drive home as Cindy tried to apparently kill us with her interesting night driving techniques. =D

Day 3 (Tuesday)
I get up in time to go and meet up with my roomate Mike who has just flown into Vancouver on a layover. I thought since everyone I know is out at work and busy that I would go and show him around Richmond. Give him a true tour of the joint. I took him out for his first Bubble Tea at Richmond Public Market, and then we went to RiverRock Casino to look around. He then got a phone call from work saying that he was flying home that day instead of laying over and so back to the airport we went. Later that night I met up with a guy off of the Subaru message forums that I frequent as he had agreed to buy my stock WRX radio I had posted for sale. We met in kits in a back alley, it really did feel like a drug deal. Why was I in Kits? Well I was visiting my oldest friend Ian! We went out for dinner at the Frog and Firkin and we each had the standard Frog and Firkin staple beverage "the big Hoeegarden" A 50fl oz. massive glass of Belgium wheat beer! Mmmmm.. dinner was great and then we walked back to Ian's place so that I could see his new tv. Now, when Ian told me that he got a new TV, I'm thinking it was a 27" tv. Not quite. The bugger got himself a nice Sony 46" widescreen HDTV!!! Great TV! I'm envious. When it was delivered though Ian hadn't finished constructing the tv stand, so it was just sitting on the floor. He and I then gracefully picked up the heavy monster and placed it gingerly on the stand. What a machine. We watched some American Idol and then it was time for me to head home. I arrived home and was quite tired. I told my mom I was going to take a nap, but I never woke up from my nap and slept through until 8am. That was too early to be waking up but I couldn't stay in bed any longer.

Day 4 (Wednesday)
I watched Elf in the morning and flipped through the tv channels for a good couple of hours. I was taking in as much of that bigscreen as I could! Oh how I miss it so. In the early afternoon I headed off to Boundary Bay Airport to go and surprise my previous employers and see how things were going there. I walked into the office and was quite amazed. A lot of new furniture and nice equipment. Of course after I leave! I chatted it up with my old boss for a good hour and met his replacement. He felt it was time to move on and a new company has recently taken over at the airport. He seems ok with the change and feels it will be good to get out and try something else. I also chatted with our Operations Manager at the Airport for about an hour and got the updates on what's being going on since I've left. While chatting I also saw both of my old planes taxi by: The Eye In the Sky and the News1130/JackFM traffic planes. Ahhh, memories. I headed back into Richmond and met up with a family friend who was kind enough to burn me a bunch of copies of games and programs to be used with my new laptop. Then it was home for dinner and then I met up with Justin and Marcel at RiverRock Casino for some POKER!

******POKER STORY********
So after scoping out the competitoin Justin and I were the only ones to play. We opted for the only No Limit game that was playing ($3/$6 No Limit Texas Hold 'em). We each bought in for $300 as the minimum buy in was $100 and the max was $500. The table was pretty much full and there were ppl with money sitting there. Chip stacks ranged from $100 to $700. I was seated to the right of Justin. My 3rd hand I scored the best possible starting hand in Hold 'em Poker (Pocket Rockets: Ace Ace) I bet it up to $40 and everyone folded!!! I was a little dissapointed, but hey, I mdae money off of it! $9! The very next hand i'm holding two 8's which is pretty decent. I bet it up to $20 and the only person to freaking do anything with that is Ho, who immediatly raises to $40 and I wasn't willing to call that and everyone else folded, so he stole my $20 and yes, I am sore about that Ho! I didn't really get the opportunity to play many hands, or was pushed out of pots too often. I was getting great hands that turned to crap after "the flop". In one round around the table, I had AK suited, AQ suited and AJ suited. All did jack all for me. After just a little more than an hour of play it was time to go. I left the table -$180, and Justin after making his pocket rockets work well left at +$46. Marcel had left before we even really got to start playing and John had come right when we started and he watched this all unfold. Thanks your support Ma! Afterwards we headed off to Delia's for a little gathering where everyone dispersed rather quickly as it was late at the time.

Day 5 (Thursday)
Last day at home started with me getting a decent sleep and then after breakfast and a little TV time, I joined my Dad in the garage to sort thru a bunch of boxes they had packed up after I moved out in July. Essentially making two piles: Keep and Toss. That took up a lot of time and then it was pretty much time to pack to go home! After I was all ready to go back to Calgary it was off to meet up with some friends for a farewell coffee. But after reviewing my Westjet Itinerary I realized I had more time afterall. Oops. =D So coffee turned into a meeting at Ricky's for a dinner where I never heard the end of my little mistake, as some ppl had already gone to the airport to see me off! We had a quick and memorable little dinner then it was off to airport where I raced to make my flight. Got there in time thanks to Cindy's crazy driving. SLOW DOWN! Checked in and got molested at security, from what I gathered, they were being reviewed that day and were making everyone go through the full nine yards. I had my belt, shoes and every metal object removed and going through the metal detector... what a gong show. Newho, raced to the gate and made the plane. We were flying back on another empty flight, but this was one of Westjet's new 737-700's with leather seats and tv's in the back of every headrest with live satelite tv! The only downside is that they only turn the tv's on when climbing up through 18,000' and they go off again on the decsent. On a trip to Toronto this would be great. But on a trip to Calgary, we got about 15mins of TV time! Oh well. Bumpy ride back into Calgary and then it was back home, where I stayed up as long as I could to prepare for my night shift the next day.

That brings us up to date. Here I am during my night shift. It snowed quite a bit today. Ahhh Calgary. What a welcome home.

Well, hope you enjoyed reading that novel. If any of you actually stuck it out this long and are reading this. Congrats!

It only took me... eeek.. 25mins to type that out... holy cow. Alright. I've got lotsa work to get back to.

Picture Perfect...

Heading home soon. Just thought this was a great pic of the Pilatus PC-12 (the Aircraft that I fly). I'll have to take some more pics so that I can finally start showing all you people what the heck I do during my adventures.

In just about 6hrs I'll be cruising home! Not in one of our Pilatus' but one of Westjet's '37s.

Tick tock, tick tock. Time can't go by fast enough here........................