Mood:

Tonight when I got to my ex’s place to take care of the kids Geoffrey asked me to take him to a park. Because they generally eat around 6pm we normally don’t have enough time to do that beforehand, and after dinner it gets dark, we normally can’t.

Dinner was going to be late so I said we could go for a half hour. Because of the limited amount of time I asked if I could leave Emily behind so that Geoffrey could ride his bike there and back. Both Grandpa and Uncle said okay, they would keep an eye on her.

When Geoffrey and I got back almost 45 minutes later, Emily was nowhere to be found. I rushed about the house to see if she perhaps went to have a nap or out to the swings in the back but she was GONE.

I was just starting to freak out when Uncle Steve flagged down a police car. Over a half hour earlier they had picked up a little girl IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET wanting her grandma, but nobody knew who she was. They took her to the police station and had patrolled until they found some frantic parental-looking people. Emily was soon back home, and probably not understanding how absolutely freaked out we all were.

HOLY FUCK. She’s two, and is already showing this level of independence! She was found with her hat, pink rubber boots and a backpack on, about a half block down the street, on the way to the park.

They’re definitely going to set the chain on the door from now on. Good thing they live in such a good neighbourhood!

Mood:

The company I work for is having a fundraising pub night at the Jolly Miller on Friday, Sep. 14 from 6-10pm. It’s $10 to attend and the money is going to help a family at Christmastime. If anyone would like to come please let me know and I’ll get you a ticket (just get me $10 at some point). The ticket includes a burger, salad, fries and a drink, which would cost about that much anyway (if not more), so it’s win-win.

Mood:

00. Think of the first word that comes to mind when you think of me.
01. Run a Google image search on that word.
02. Reply to this entry & post a link to one of the pictures from your search, but don’t tell me what the word was.
03. Put this on your blog/journal, so I can do the same.

Mood:

Just for Joe, since his suggestion made more sense:

Mood:

So I saw this guy holding this sign on the corner by the malls. If you can’t make it all out (I shot it with my phone through the car’s front window), it says “JESUS IS LORD”, and in smaller letters, “OVER CHILLIWACK”.

What is he trying to accomplish? The way I figure it here are the things different people will think as they pass:

Mood:

It’s so true!

Mood: :dead:

It’s such a nice day, which means my allergies are kicking up. Here’s a little ditty to the tune of Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”:

I can feel the sneezes from the air today, ah-choo!
I’ve been allergic to the pollen for all my life, ah-choo!
Can you feel the sneezes from the air today, ah-choo! Ah-choo!

And I can feel the sneezes from the air today, ah-choo!
I’ve been allergic to the pollen for all my life, ah-choo!
I am still sneezing from the air today, ah-choo! Ah-choo!
I’ve been allergic to the pollen for all my life, ah-choo! Ah-choo!

Mood:

I noticed that comments on this blog weren’t being e-mailed to me a few months ago but the Smart Unread Comments were picking them up just fine. Then Puck noticed that his latest comment wasn’t appearing on the index page ["Comments (0)"] but showed fine on the page for the post itself.

Was finally able to find something on it online: Spam Karma was somehow invalidating the comments on the index page but not on the post page. Solution: upgrade Spam Karma. I chose instead to uninstall it (because that’s just silly) and use Askimet, but there’s no way to fix the old comments. New ones appear just fine.

Mood:

I went through the Aldergrove crossing when I went down to the States and back. Here’s how each encounter went:

Wednesday evening. Two female U.S. border guards were in the box when I got there. The older one was standing, almost looming, and had a stern, piercing look.
Border guard: “Identification please.”
(I handed my driver’s license over)
BG: “Where do you live?”
Me: “Chilliwack”
BG: “Where were you born?”
Me: “Vancouver”
BG: “Why are you entering the States, and for how long?”
Me: “Attending a seminar in Seattle for two days.”
BG, with more intent look: “Are you teaching this seminar?”
Me, remembering how the U.S. government hates foreigners working in their country, taking jobs from them: “Wha–? Oh, no, definitely not. Learning.”
BG: “What is it for?”
Me: “Software testing.”
BG: “What do you do?”
Me: “I…test software…”
BG: “What?”
Me, rethinking how that sounded: “I work with software.”
BG: “Where do you work?”
Me: “(reference removed, since I’ve never mentioned it on this blog), in Abbotsford.”
BG, after her partner looks it up on the computer and giving me back my driver’s license: “Okay, go on through.”
Me: “Whew.”

Return trip, Friday evening. A lone guard manned the box. He was reading a book and his feet were up.
Border guard: “Where do you live?”
Me: “Chilliwack”
BG: “How long have you been gone?”
Me: “Two days.”
BG: “Value of goods purchased?”
Me: “Nothing.”
BG, returning to his book: “Drive on through.”
Me, still holding my driver’s license because he never asked for it: “Uh…thanks!” (vroom)

Mood: :borg:

I loaded up Half Life 2: Lost Coast so I could see all the eye candy on my new system. Nothing huge, but I maxed everything out (at 1280×1024, which is my normal desktop size) and told it to stress-test my system. After the flythrough it came back at just under 60 fps.

In Counterstrike Source my fps is 40-90 depending on the area (40 for the bazaar in CS_Italy), hovering around 65-80 as I run around. Haven’t noticed any increase in my score, however (damnit).