Peter's Journal

Yesterday was steph_grrl's birthday. After dinner, I offered her a final birthday present, an engagement ring. She said yes! We are looking forward to having the wedding in May or June of 2009.

I've been in Ottawa now for just over six months. And I've been loving every minute of it. steph_grrl and I are busy, her with school and me with work.

I said before that moving to a different country was interesting, but I didn't realize how interesting it would be. Lots of paperwork to fill out, lots of new identification cards to get, and almost no data transfer from the US is automated. Some of the paperwork was needed because I bought my first car in several years. I ended up getting a slightly used 2006 Subaru Legacy. I have gotten a chance to test out the All-Wheel Drive in the snow recently, and I must say, it handles quite nicely.

Work is still plugging along. It looks like I might be about to start on a special project for a while; it should be interesting, allowing me to get back to doing some development.

I still don't have internet at home, so this is a little late. I drove Sunday from Boston to Ottawa, getting in about 22:15. The border crossing was much easier than I expected. I already had the work permit in hand, so it was just a short discussions with customs.

Monday was the day to unload the truck. By noon is was fully unloaded. Then it was unpacking and setup. Tuesday was more unpacking, and cable & phone installation.

Wednesday was the first day back to work, fly to Newark, get stuck for several hours due to Thunderstorms, on to Memphis. Returned Thursday to find steph_grrl cooking Pho at my place for dinner. Yum yum.

Now it is Friday, and I have a couple more days to get things unpacked, before leaving Monday for 4 days on the road. I'll be in Minneapolis on Monday and Tuesday, and Greenville, SC on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

I am almost done packing and loading the truck. Just a couple more small boxes worth of stuff. Note to self: next time you move, get started packing earlier, and have it done before getting the truck.

So I should be setting off for the drive to Ottawa in a couple of hours. Yay!

In other news, I'll be in Memphis, Tennessee and Minneapolis, Minnesota in the next couple of weeks, so if you are there and want to say hi, and possibly grab food or drinks, let me know.

So, I've been working on various things to get ready to move. It turns out moving to a foreign country, even if it is "just" Canada, takes paperwork. The immigration lawyers sent the list of documents requires plus several forms to fill out. Then there are the discussions with my apartment's management company about ways to get out of my lease early. And the research on buying a car. I still need to get a reference for, and talk to, an accountant to deal with tax issues.

Of course, on top of all of this, I'm getting more and more requests for work related stuff. Travel for sales, organizing field training, work with marketing, business development, and other groups. And, making sure the mundane things are done. Laundry, dry cleaning, shopping, and packing are topping the list.

This will slow done some. SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 will launch, the real estate stuff will get resolved, and I will get the paperwork to the lawyers. But, most importantly, I'll get moved. I know I'll be a lot less stressed after I move, and I suspect this will make me much happier. Soon, soon, but not soon enough.

Today was the first day that I managed to go the entire waking day without narcotic pain killers. All I have taken for pain is 1000mg of Tylenol. While this is great news, I don't think it means that I should go out late tonight, much les drink anything.

Walking still takes considerably more effort than it did a week ago, and I still can't wear pants with the waist over my incision. But one step at a time.

I also was quite happy to get a teddy bear and chocolates from Steph today, along with a note wishing me well. steph_grrl is so good to me. I'm really looking forward to moving so I can be much closer to her.

I had a once in a lifetime experience on Sunday. Something that, thankfully, will never happen again. I am now back home, feeling somewhat better, and recovering nicely. For those who don't want the full details, you can skip past them.
( The non-gory Details )

By late afternoon on Sunday, I was able to walk around the hospital floor a little bit, and, according to the nurses, was making good progress. I was discharged from the hospital on Monday afternoon. After a quick stop at the drug store for pain killers, I've been at home alternating between sleeping, eating, walking around a little, and talking to people online and on the phone.

I'm not expecting to be back in the office until at least next Monday, and not traveling for a couple more weeks. So, if you were expecting me to be at a meeting or event before the 17th, I'm sorry. If you want to find me, please try me on either AOL Instant Messenger pzbowen, IRC (pzb on LinuxNET), or email me (pzbowen@gmail.com). I am much more likely to check these methods over the next few days than my normal corporate email/IM.

After all this, I owe big thanks to steph_grrl, Ryan, and Katey. All three of you have been lots of help in your own ways over the last few days.

Last night I went out drinking with deviant_ and nasrat. After a few drinks, we decided to play Karaoke Revolution... what an addictive game. It turns out that you don't have to be able to sing much at all to do well, but fun can be had by all. I really should get together with Peter more often; I spent way too much time catching up on what various people we knew in common in Raleigh are doing now. I'm sure nasrat was bored out of his mind. Sorry Paul :(

This morning I woke up in a really good mood. Going out shopping, picking up stuff that I ordered and now should be ready, and so on. But then it all changed. One little note can flip your day around. I'm just hoping that the day will flip again.

A new year is upon us, and with it come many new things. I am hopeful that things will change this year, but also hopeful that things will stay the same. Work has consumed my life for the past couple of years, but hopefully this year I can do a better job of balancing personal time and work time. The job has only gotten better, and I hope that stays the same. On the other side, last year was a great year in my personal life, but more about that some other time.

Here's looking forward to a great 2005!

So apparently my little sister has started a blog. Not that big of a deal, but just shows how time are changing. When I was sixteen I don't even think the concept of an online journal or weblog existed. So go see Two Beds and a Coffee Machine.

I had forgotten how nice it can be to have an apartment to oneself. My roommate is gone for a little more than a week, for the Thanksgiving holidays, and I'm enjoying the time to myself. The last time I had my own apartment was when I lived in Annapolis.

Now I just need to figure out what to do for Thanksgiving. My family is all traveling to various places. So there isn't a single town to go to. At this point I haven't booked any sort of travel. I feel like I should take advantage of the four-day weekend to do something. I'm only traveling for work one night this week (Monday), so I'll just be around Boston unless something else comes up.

You Are From Mercury

You are talkative, clever, and knowledgeable - and it shows. You probably never leave home without your cell phone! You're witty, expressive, and aware of everything going on around you. You love learning, playing, and taking in all of what life has to offer. Be careful not to talk your friends' ears off, and temper your need to know everything.

A new quiz, this time from the BBC, courtesy of steph_grrl:

Your answers suggest you are a Nurturer.

The four aspects that make up this personality type are:



Summary of Nurturers

• Care for the important people in their lives
• Strive for harmony and avoid confrontation
• Think of themselves as gentle, conscientious, and mature
• May have trouble making decisions that could hurt others

More about Nurturers

Nurturers are quiet people who believe in order and diligently look after the people they care about. They focus on the needs of others and establish routines to help them meet their commitments.

Nurturers remember details that are important to them, such as their friends' birthdays and anniversaries. People with this personality type value others' feelings and may challenge behaviour they think is insensitive.

In situations where they can't use their talents or are unappreciated, Nurturers may feel bitter and seek support by complaining to their colleagues. Under extreme stress, Nurturers may become preoccupied with the worst possible outcome and believe that they are heading for disaster.

Because they are so caring and loyal, Nurturers run the risk of being taken advantage of.

I have a few (5 at the moment) gmail invites available. Post a comment if you want one.

Update: I have given a few away, but Google has given me more. So there are still some available.

The other day I was driving out near Alewife, and noticed that a kitchen store was going out of business. So yesterday I stopped in to look at knives. I should note that I have had a set of basic stamped knives (Tramontina Colorado) for a while, but wanted something nicer. There were not a lot of knives left, but I found a nice three knife set by Zwilling J.A. Henckels. I got an awesome deal, and am very happy with the knives.

Normally I am not the type to buy a luxury item like Henckels knives for myself, but I do enjoy cooking, and noticed how much nicer a good knife is when visiting steph_grrl recently. She has a nice set of forged knives, and they really do feel better when cooking. Hopefully I will find enough time to cook to make the purchase worth it.

I decided that I really should make more of an effort to do things on the weekends. So, last week I saw a message on a mailing list from someone looking for people to crew a sailboat for a weekend sail to P-town. Unfortunately the weather turned sour (hurricane Charlie), but we did do a day sail on Saturday. We sailed out around several of the islands in the Boston Harbor Islands park. I have only been out into the harbor once before -- on my way to the cape via ferry. The islands look like they could be a lot of fun.

There is a daily ferry out to George's Island, and inter-island ferries to several other islands. There is also camping on a few of the islands; I would love to try it sometime, but the last weekend the campgrounds are open is Labor Day (Sept 4-6). Maybe next year. I will get out to the islands during the day soon. Maybe this weekend, maybe next weekend. Depends on what I'm doing.