Priority Upgrade

The other day I drove to Lindsay to complete a BOMA BESt survey for work. I then drove to Peterborough and spent the night in a hotel before driving to Belleville for a Designated Substance Survey (DSS) and then driving back to Ottawa.
While in Peterborough, I stayed at the Holiday Inn there that I had reserved with my personal information in order to get points on my holiday inn card. Because I had done that, I was registered under my priority points number and upon arrival was upgraded to a river-view room that should have been almost double the price of the room I had actually reserved. It was very nice and once I got a minute to check out the view, I was a little sad that I hadn't brought any of my personal photography equipment. I only had the crappy little cameras we use for work. They are incredibly beat up and don't take the nicest photos, but hopefully you will still get the point of the great view I had, even though it was late January.Please ignore the reflection of my hand and camera and the terrible glare from the sun - like I said, the work cameras are far from the standards of my normal equipment plus I was running behind schedule. Either way, it was a very nice room and I was rather impressed that I got bumped up so easily - go Holiday Inn Priority Club!!

Out of Town Again

Once again Dave has been sent out of town for work. He is going to be doing three waste audits and asbestos update surveys in Peterborough, Lindsay and Cobourg all of this upcoming week. While he is doing all these site visits he will be staying with his parents in Peterborough, which saves the company some money since we don't have to get a hotel room for the week (he will also get to pocket a few bucks as an incentive for doing this).
Unlike previous out of town work Dave has done for DST, it is not one of our bosses that has scheduled all this work for him - it was me. The waste audits he will be completing are part of my job for the ORC. The asbestos update surveys, also for the ORC, are not my project, but were kind of left under my watch while my boss is on paternity leave - well, at least the scheduling of this site visit was.
So, long story short, Dave will be out of town for a week leaving me to figure stuff out on my own. What will I do you ask? Well I have costumes to sew and a house to clean. I also have some free time for friends and catching up with the girls as Dave will be night work for the majority of the week and therefore will not really be available to talk that much either. All in all, not much will be different from when he is here, except I will be a little less happy, and lot more lonely.

Thanksgiving 2009 - #1

Today marks the beginning of the Thanksgiving the weekends (officially) as well as the beginning of our Thanksgiving roadtrip (I am trying to put a positive spin on all the driving we have ahead of us). Unlike last year, we do not have Thanksgiving with both families in one weekend. My parents have decided to move their Thanksgiving dinner to next weekdn to allow for everyone to have a more relaxing Thanksgiving, and for more time with them. This weekend we are off to the Konings - well actually the Mantels as it is Dave's mom's side of the family we are eating dinner with. We will be travelling to Peterborough today and then tomorrow heading with his immediate family, to Newmarket for the actual meal. We will likely be spending the night in Peterborough and driving back to Ottawa Monday.
The Beach Family Thanksgiving celebrations are always the last to get scheduled as Tyler and Lynn have to go all the way out to Wilno and we have to go all the way to Peterborough and Newmarket. Both Dave and Lynn's families also tend to be a bit less flexible when it comes to planning holiday festivities as well. I don't mean to be offensive, just stating facts. They get told when hers is and we get told when the Konings are and so far they have both been on the same day which enables the Beach one to be nicely planned around those. As previously mentioned, Mom and Dad decided to move theirs to decrease the stress and troubles on both Tyler and Lynn and Dave and I. It also allows for more time with them that will be really nice.
Anyway, I am looking forward to some good food and photography (I tend to be the unofficial photographer for the Koning/Mantel events). And of course - leftovers!!

Bird in the Hand

As many of our friends know, Dave's dad is a fire fighter in Peterborough. He risks his life to save others on a daily basis but the other day they saved the life of a crow.

According to the email he sent us, they often get calls about cats stuck in trees and refer, amongst themselves, to an ongoing joke of a bird stuck in a tree. And then it happened - they got a rescue call for a bird stuck in a tree.

The crow had apparently gotten caught in the tree via some fishing line and could not break free. The homeowner who made the call had waited a couple of days hoping it would come free on its own but eventually called for assistance.

When the fire fighters arrived on scene they cut down the branch the bird was tied to and brought him down. They then cut off the tangled line and released the bird back into the wild. The really interesting thing is that the homeowner said the bird's family (other crows) had been bringing it food over the past couple of days while it was trapped. The birds then reunited once the bird was freed. (Thanks to John Koning for sharing this story and the photos.)

Vacation's Over

My first vacation while working at DST is over. We went to Peterborough for Jess' convocation, to the Toronto Zoo and my mom came down for a day in Ottawa. It was very pleasant and relaxing and didn't cost that much overall which is really awesome. Now I just need to decide when I want to take some more time off and what I want to do with it.

Vacation

I turned in my first Vacation Request Form at work yesterday for June 3-5.
Dave's younger sister, Jess, is graduating from Trent University on June 3 and we really want to go and support her. I know Dave is very proud of his little sister (as am I of course). We both know how hard it is to finish school no matter what program you are in and Jess was able to do it while working and maintaining her personal life!
After the graduation day, we are planning on going to the Toronto Zoo. We went there about 2 years ago as a side trip after a family event and had a blast - but my camera had camera envy as I was using my little Kodak back then. I want to spend a day there with my new fabulous camera and the zoom lens and quite possibly the tripod as well. I have been to the zoo many times in my life and really like it - the Toronto Zoo takes really good care of their animals and their exhibits are very similar to their natural habitats.

Family Visits

I really enjoyed this past weekend with the families. Dave and I drove to Peterborough on Saturday and then joined his mom's side of the family in Newmarket for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. Monday we headed to Prescott to spend the day with my family. Tyler and Lynn were already there as they had drove up the day before and it was really nice to see them again.

This weekend was also my parent's anniversary (11th), my mom's birthday (11th) and Tyler and Lynn's 1 month anniversary (13th) - so there was even more to celebrate than just Thanksgiving itself. It was a very nice relaxing day.

Unfortunately I got sick sometime during the weekend, though I think it was building up throughout last week.

Thanksgiving Preparation

Thanksgiving is the weekend of the 11th and it is currently looking like it is going to be a good one, though quite busy as well. Not only is our guest moving out two days before the weekend, but we have lots of family dinners in the works as well. In previous years Dave and I go in opposite directions for Thanksgiving (each to our respective families), but this year we are going to try and get to both families together – should be interesting to say the least.

Dave’s Aunt Melinda is having the Mantel Family Thanksgiving at her place near Toronto on Sunday. We will probably be spending the night at his parent’s home in Peterborough and then driving to Prescott to have dinner with my parents, brother and new sister in law on Monday. It will mean lots of food and possible some good leftovers to get us through that next week too. We could move my family’s Thanksgiving up to this weekend, but that would mean we lose two weekends to this holiday instead of just one and quite frankly I have been so tired lately I need the weekends to rest up from the previous week of work and early mornings.

The Mantel Family get-togethers are very different from the Beach ones. To start with The Beach Family Thanksgiving consists of about 5 or 6 people while the Mantel consists of ... well a lot more. Mantel Family events are planned way in advance as it needs to be decided which sibling will get to host the event (or have to host it depending on your outlook) while the Beach events are rather unplanned and just semi-‘go with the flow’. Dinner is of course planned, but the day that it happens doesn’t really matter as long as there is even notice to make the meal.They have the same family togetherness feel to them and there is really no drama at either of them, so I guess it is really just the size and pre-planning of the event that makes them different.

I am looking forward to being part of Dave’s family holiday as I have been attending the family reunions for the past three years and enjoy them very much. It will be nice though to have a quiet, peaceful day with my family after it all though.