Nose to the grindstone

In my last post I mentioned a new job. For the last six weeks I've been working in a friend's law office helping with their municipal tax appeal business. It's been a pretty hectic time as I came on-board just a few days before the deadline for requesting an appeal of the 2009 property valuations. The phones were ringing off the hook and I was learning the business on the fly! I did quite well though. Now we are just as busy entering data, a lot of data, and preparing for the actual appeals. It's going to take months, which means lots of paid work but also lots of repetition.

Today I got out of town with my triathlon club for a group ride. Excellent weather and good company for 60K. It was wonderful to feel the wind on my face and the road under my wheels. My next Ironman is less than three months away, it's kind of snuck up on me. I've got to get serious about my training! This is tempered by a need to restrict my swim training as I've managed to hurt my right shoulder rotator cuff. Tomorrow morning I'm taking my Marathon Clinic on a 33K long run, the final significant run before they head off for the Ottawa Marathon on May 24th. Last Sunday's 29K run went better than I expected, a comfortable pace that brought me home in 2:30.

Recent films: The Wrestler on DVD. An interesting character study, but the conclusion felt a bit forced. Mickey Rourke gave a great come-back performance as Randy "The Ram" Robinson. Marissa Tomei's performance as the stripper Cassidy was brave as she spend a substantial chunk of screen time topless. I saw Safina Uberoi's documentary A Good Man at the Hot Docs film festival last night. The film is about a struggling Australian sheep farmer with a quadriplegic wife (he married her that way) who builds a brothel... You couldn't make that kind of thing up, could you? It was well made, but at times I was just shaking my head at the what they were going through. Perhaps an Australian farmer is the only kind of person on earth so inured to hard work and disaster that they'd be able to step up to a task like that.

Last weekend's sparsely-attended Bahrain Grand Prix did not feature rain. It was hot, hot, hot and looked like a set from the first Star Wars movie... Most of the action was in the first few laps and the rest of the race revolved around tires and pit stops. In the end Jenson Button of Brawn GP was back on top for his third victory in four races. Sebastien Vettel's Red Bull car was unable to challenge because of traffic in the early part of the race but did hold off Jarno Trulli's Toyota. Lewis Hamilton kept McLaren respectable by finishing fourth while Kimi Raikkonen earned Ferrari's first points of the season with a sixth place finish. Next stop, Barcelona.

Final thought: Is this Swine Flu thing really just another regular flu or a real new health risk? "Regular" flu kills about 500,000 people a year, but they're mostly health-compromised already.

Listening to: Don't Let Me Fall by Lenka from Lenka.

Apheresis

I try to donate blood regularly, but with the triathlon season upon me I need to keep my red blood cells... So this week I tried platelet donation. This is a much more complex process - ninety minutes hooked up to a fancy machine that draws out some of your blood, removes the platelets and some plasma and then returns the rest. This cycle happens dozens of times over the session and each return of blood makes your arm feel a bit cool. I felt a bit light-headed at the end too. This kind of donation can be done every 14 days. Not sure how often I'll do it though! Although the nurse was a flirtatious buxom blonde...

Things are looking up on the job front, I've come across two positions that seem like a great match for my experience, and I expect to be interviewed by at least one of them next week. It's going to be a busy week because I'll also be driving down to my brother's place near New York to set up his wife's new company office. Sheryl will be coming along for the ride, which will mean she can finally meet my brother and sister-in-law.

Sheryl's back from Australia by the way. :-) She was down for almost a month visiting relations and got back last Sunday night. Good to have her back...

Listening to: Come Again by Thornley from Come Again.

A quick trip to MaRS

Yesterday I took a quick trip to MaRS to see how the place was doing. It seems to be holding up well. In fact, it's never looked better. Why the strange spelling? Well MaRS is actually a technology centre downtown beside the University of Toronto campus. Originally it stood for Medical and Related Sciences, but it immediately became just four letters as a lot of non-medical tech ventures have landed in the $450 million facilty. I was there to network with fellow technology managers. It's an award-winning "intelligent building", but guess what? Really crappy cell phone reception.

Last weekend also saw the staging of the British Formula One Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso started on pole position and stayed there. Kimi Raikkonen was second on the grid, but pit stop strategy helped Michael Schumacher, who qualified third, get his Ferrari ahead. That was pretty much the way it went. The only other activity of note was a first lap accident that took out three cars out and a few mechanical failures, most notably Jenson Button's Honda letting go on lap nine. Too bad, Jenson had been on a charge after being unable to qualify well. Curiously all eight point-earning places were held by four teams, with BMW's drivers filling the last two spots. Go Jacques!

The last weekend activity to report is that Chris wanted to see The Breakup, so we went on Saturday afternoon. The less said the better...

Listening to: Same Old Scene by Roxy Music from Street Life.

Back from the precipice

I've been busy. But I'm back.

Last week was a tough one as I was reaching the edge of my credit at the bank and I had promised to take Sheryl away for the day on the weekend. On top of that, I'd been feeling vulnerable at work because I have a new boss and it felt like he was cutting me out of the loop and was busy doing my job for me. I really hate feeling that my contributions aren't valued. Worst still would be finding myself out of a job and out of credit all at the same time! There was lots on my mind, and I wasn't sleeping very well. On top of it all we had some server hard drive problems that looked catastrophic but ended up being minor...

Now things seem better, although I missed out on an eBay auction for a triathlon wetsuit because I felt I had to be extra-careful my my funds. I've lined things up at the bank to consolidate my debts and re-mortgage at a better rate. Sheryl and I had a great weekend at the Millcroft Inn, and I managed to stay within my current credit limits to do it. And this morning I had a chat with my new boss about my concerns. I don't know if I'm "safe" at work, but at least I opened the conversation about roles and responsibilities. The only truly bad news remaining is that Sheryl's little dog Barkley has developed cataracts rather suddenly, at the tender age of four. She's trying to decide whether to adjust to life with a blind dog or pay for some rather expensive surgery.

The weekend (well, night) at the Millcroft Inn was a great experience. We arrived Sunday afternoon and spend Monday driving through the Caledon Hills countryside. The fallout from the aforementioned server problems kept me in the office until about 2:00 PM Sunday, but we managed to get on the road in good time. I'd found some web sites describing scenic routes and we tried to get to the Millcroft along one of the suggested paths. It was a wet and blustery day, so we only stopped once. We also kept missing our turns as we were enjoying the scenery too much, even though the leaves were mostly off the trees. Our stop was the little village of Erin, which while not very scenic had a remarkable collection of top-drawer gift and house-ware shops.

You can see all my photos from the trip on my Flickr page.

Dinner was included in our package, so we made the most of the Millcroft's gourmet menu. It was a quiet night and we were able to enjoy a very intimate meal. The dining room overlooks the mill's dam, which was cascading with water. Sheryl had the tuna appetiser were followed by Muscovy duck breast, while I chose the pheasant breast and the beef tenderloin. We enjoyed a nice Aussie Shiraz over our dinner, and finished with a gourmet cheese plate and souffle. The only problem was that we were too full to take full advantage on the fireplace in our room which was in the "Manor House", a Victorian building beside the main limestone mill building...

Monday morning was sunny and warmer, so after breakfast we wandered the grounds and took some pictures. Unfortunately our phones both started ringing. Sheryl's daughter called to find out how things were going, and I took a series of calls from the office about very minor emergencies. Grumble. We tried to continue following the route I had found, but the villages we passed through were mostly disappointing. We did find a great road to drive along though, and if you're in that area I recommend taking the Forks of the Credit road. Take it from east to west. It's a winding valley road that follows a popular fishing river and has lots of surprises around corners. At the west end it climbs up the Niagara Escarpment in dramatic fashion. Here are some snaps from the climb:

Listening to: What A Day That Was by Talking Heads from Stop Making Sense.