...since my last post. Really? You believe that at all? Well, I have to make this fast because I'm at a library in Calgary that charges for its internet time if you don't live in the city. Well, I don't...yet! So, nothing much has happened except:

1. I got a really good job offer with another company
2. I was informed that Trican had no position for me in an engineering capacity
3. I quit Trican and accepted the offer from the other company
4. I am homeless in Calgary looking for a place to live

Yeah! So nothing much has happened at all, right? Yeah, right!

The company I will be working for is called Gemini. You can check out their website here. I'm not going to give you a detailed list of what I will be doing or what they do exactly because I'm pressed for time (19 minutes on the little warning counter) and I'm not entirely sure. I do know that I'll be working in a project group dealing with equipment and stations directly above the well head and that my title is Junior Engineer. I know a lot of you are snickering at the "Junior," but what can I say? I'm a pretty old junior. Also, I need to finish this quickly so I can use the rest of my time looking for a place to live.

That's the hard part. Renting a place in Calgary is like saying goodbye to the bulk of your paycheck. I had no idea it was so expensive here. I mean, besides all the work around here there doesn't seem to be much motivation to move here if the real estate prices are so out of reach. I mean, it's still more reasonable than Victoria but its getting there. I might just have to squat on someone's land or something. Raise my kids in a tent. Maybe I'll get one of those circus tent dealies. I could have the mansion of tent, and all of the other tent-squatters would be green with envy looking up at my home that you could literally run elephants through while 18 clowns in a small VW bug pull off those crazy shenanigans. Anyway, where was I?

Oh yeah! I'm looking for a dwelling. So if anyone has any leads, please feel free to call me. Please!

As always, when things happen in my life, they happen fast. I got the job offer on Monday, accepted it on Tuesday and I was unemployed on Thursday. I start May 15th, so my goal is to find a dwelling quickly so I can head back to Victoria and spend the bulk of what time I have left with the girls and my lady. As opposed to the Trican job, I will be working a straight 5 on 2 off shift. So I won't see the girls until they move here at the end of June. Also, My Aunt Carol is putting me up again. Thank you thank you thank you Auntie Carol! She's even fed me. I told her she doesn't have to! I've offered her rent, but she's declined. I owe her at least a big fancy dinner. She told me that when we get settled in Calgary that we can all go out to Burger King. Hah!

So, I gotta wrap this up. Apparently Mike has heard about my insults towards him, but he still doesn't read his "best friend's" blog. My buddy asked him if he started, but Mike replied that he only sits in front of the computer when he has too. Then Dan asked him if he still plays cards on the computer. Let me tell you, Mike not only wastes hours and hours in front of these life suckers playing online euchre and dominoes, but he has also been known to organize tournament and admistrates them. He actually has part of his life devoted to an online community of friends, but he can't take five minutes to see how his "best friend" is doing. Hmmmm. Nice, Mike. Real nice! (Hey, I don't mind throwing a few guilt pangs his way. Makes me feel fulfilled for some reason).

Any how, wish me luck on the housing front. Gotta fly!

Yes! I hate monotony! My current definition of monotony is polishing everything in sight with recycled, stripped up sweat pants (there's actually a company making money just selling boxes of ripped up sweat pants. Is that legal?). Where as my previous definition of monotony was pushing symbols back and forth across a computer screen. Will I ever be happy with my job? Well, give me a month on that question.

So how did I golf? Do you even have to ask that question? I was, however, mildly surprised (okay, shocked from disbelief) that I kept my ball on the fairway most of the time. I started the round with six balls and ended with six balls. Of course, one of the balls was one I found on the 5th hole, so it just replaced the one that I lost passed the same hole. I actually hit the ball way to hard and, ahem, hooked it into some tall grass on a hill, and, thus, it was lost forever.

Highlights:
- Using only putters on certain holes
- Watching guys tee off beer cans
- Almost hitting the golf marshal with my ball after being chided into trying in but not really meaning to do it (that's how much control I have over that little ball)
- Actually paring the final hole
- The terrific steak dinner afterwards

Lowlights:
- People drinking too much
- People drinking too much and picking fights
- People drinking too much and picking fights and actually being the one picked on

Yup! I got into a little tussle. It wasn't too bad because the guy was stinking hosed, but what sucked was that this guy was considered a friend of mine. He actually smacked my drink into my face while I was drinking it. I thought he was joking around although I didn't find it funny at all, but when we ended up on the ground I new he was serious. No provocation other than someone had stolen his steak dinner while he wasn't looking, and no, it wasn't me. No punches were thrown thankfully as I'm a lover, not a fighter (Michelle is probably laughing really hard right about now). We just ended up on the ground, and I held him securely until someone broke us up. I was a little upset at him, especially since he couldn't remember why he did it. He only said that I did something to upset him (not his actual words) but couldn't remember what. Not good enough for me! I told him not to talk to me till he was sober on Monday. Well, today he came up and apologized, and he said that he couldn't remember a thing. After he told me how much he had to drink I could understand why he couldn't remember. I just told him that I would only hang out with him till he had a certain amount of BEvERageS and then I'd find someone a little less violent to hang with. I don't need that kind of stuff in my life.

Other than that, the night was good. I turned in after the golf course portion, and apparently missed a whole bunch of more fighting. Which is just fine with me! I'm a lover, not a fighter (stop laughing, Michelle, or they'll never believe me).

The rest of the weekend was pretty tame. Played some PS2, read a good book, and watched two good movies. If you ever get the chance, I really recommend a movie called Run Lola Run. It's a fun little German movie set to some good techno and is just strange enough to keep me interested. Check out the link I've provided, but if you ARE going to watch it, I recommend using the subtitles as the voices that have been dubbed in make the movie unwatchable.

Well, that's it for this instant. I have some things to mull over that will affect where I'm at in the next month or so, and I'll let you all know what they are as soon as I've worked out everything. Until then I'll be secure with the knowledge that I've teased you all with that little tidbit. Ciao!

Not that we actually do a lot of sitting. It's just mind dullingly monotonous work when you don't go to the field. You get to do all sorts of fun stuff like polishing wheels, polishing fuel tanks and polishing the polish on wheels and fuel tanks. Round and round we go.

So I was asked to take a truck to Lethbridge today to get some sort of minor fixes to it, so I just jumped at that. If I timed it right, I would be back just as the day was over. Sign me up!

I don't know if I've mentioned this, but the company has a meal allowance, the amount of which is determined by the time spent away from the base. It is because of this that I eat at restaurants a lot when I'm away from Medicine Hat. So today, as I dropped the truck off at the Kenworth shop in Lethbridge and was told that it would be an hour or so before the truck got in, I asked for the location of the nearest eatery. The mechanic pointed down the road half heartedly which I kind of took as a clue as to the quality of the food. I went anyway...I was hungry, okay!

Luckily I happened to bring a book. I seem to be doing that a lot lately. Bringing books everywhere, that is. I don't have a lot of social engagements out here, so I read or play video games a lot. Yes, I still play video games! Go ahead and smirk. Anyway, I brought a book with me to this restaurant which was called Tony's Diner. Tony turned out not to be Italian at all, as I would have suspected, but he was a teeny tiny little oriental gentleman with a good humour about him. I sat myself in this restaurant with much trepidation. First of all, there was a severe lack of natural light despite the large windows that decorated the front of the establishment. Why cover them when the sun isn't shining directly into the place? The decor reminded me of two things: a highschool cafeteria or the eating area of a small oilfield camp 15 years ago. Don't ask me why because then I'd have to go into detail, and you don't want that. You just don't!

Just for a quick side note, is it wrong of me to find this sign that I saw outside of a vet supply shop beside the restaurant funny:

WE HAVE A WIDE VARIETY OF SWINE PRODUCTS

Is it just me? Anyway, I was wondering if the decor reflected the quality of the food, so when the waitress asked me what I would like I had to ask how the hamburgers were. There was a special on them today, that's why! She seemed a little taken aback, and stated with pride that their hamburgers were homemade. That settled it! I had a hamburger.

Now, while I have had very good hamburgers, and I have had very bad hamburgers, I must say that I have never had a homemade hamburger that has tasted so, er, plain. Sure they were homemade patties and not some sort of processed slab of imitation McMeat, but to me a homemade patty has more than just beef in it. There's onions and spices and garlic and stuff to enhance or add to the flavour. This was just meat. That's all! End of story! Now, I'm no restaurant critic, but if I ever have to go there again I think I'll be having something else.

Anyway, the truck got fixed and I got back in time to leave when everyone else was. Couldn't have timed it anymore perfect. Now I wait for the nightmarish experience that will be my golf game for tomorrow. Wish me luck!

...This Saturday. Oh, I'm sure my group will be entertained by my lack of skill and knowledge of the sport. It's been 16 or 17 years since I actually swung a club, and I don't remember doing it too well back then either.

The deal is, since we're in Spring Break Up I guess the company has a little party of sorts to let off some steam. So far, about two hundred employees are coming to this thing. Should be pretty interesting to see the different talent (or lack there of, in my case) on the course.

I had a blast hanging out with the kiddies and Michelle on my days off. It was nice to see everyone there, too. Me, Dan and Shannon took in a gore flick while I was back there, and it's just so refreshing to see that some movies are still made with out the need to make a blockbuster and just to entertain a certain faction of the population that likes to see people torn apart in grotesque and interesting ways. My goodness, you think I'd develop a certain amount of taste as I matured. Well, I've got news for you! I have taste, but it's all bad, and I don't really ever plan on maturing (teh heh).

So, I ridiculed my buddy Mike for not reading my blog when he asked me certain questions that could have been answered if he would have just spent five minutes to see how his friend was doing, and I guess to some extent, I ridiculed Shannon for the exact same reason. So I thought I'd spend the rest of this entry making fun of them as they probably won't read it anyway. So, here goes:

Mike is so old, he's got hieroglyphics on his driver's license

Shannon's very clever, but sometimes his brains go to his head.

I told Mike to act his age once, so he went senile.

When Shannon was born, his mother decided to leave him on the front steps of a police station while she turned herself in.

Mike's great at time management....He always sets aside enough time to humiliate himself.

Some people say Shannon's a great wit, but most agree that they are only half right.

Alright, alright! That's enough! It's pretty obvious that I shouldn't be making fun of anybody, right?

So I just got a call from my cousin Brendan who's doing a coop in Calgary, and that turned me into that rude guy who talks in the library on his cell phone. Don't you hate that guy? I should be punished! In fact, I'm going to ground myself to the TV tonight and force myself to watch two or three hours of Ultimate Fighting Championship. Yup! I'm going to force myself to watch grown, mature men beat the ever living stuff out of each other, and, you know what? I may even smile.