We have 2 dogs and 2 cats which makes for lots of fur to vacuum.  Anyway, Felix who is about 14 months old was clearly distress by something on Sunday.  He made all kinds of unpleasant cat noises whenever anyone came near which isn't like him.  He moved very gingerly and was clearly in pain. Figuring the emergency clinic would likely only hold him until Monday anyway, we brought him to our own vet who we've used many times and very much respect.  It turns out that the...

We have 2 dogs and 2 cats which makes for lots of fur to vacuum.  Anyway, Felix who is about 14 months old was clearly distress by something on Sunday.  He made all kinds of unpleasant cat noises whenever anyone came near which isn't like him.  He moved very gingerly and was clearly in pain. Figuring the emergency clinic would likely only hold him until Monday anyway, we brought him to our own vet who we've used many times and very much respect.  It turns out that the...

We went out to dinner last night.  Admittedly we go out to dinner fairly often.  We like it.  Last night we tried a new place.  Mexican theme.  It looked nice with an interesting theme appropriate menu. Josh sat us and brought the wine we order quite quickly, then Janine took over.  At first things seemed like they were going well.  She told us the specials and I ordered the blackened Red Snapper.  That wasn't what I had in mind to order but it sounded ...

I've just finished a class using WebCT for trade calculations. In this class, I have a number of students working at their own pace on a number of different objectives. This can lead me to any number of situations.One young man is busy on FaceBook rather than doing his course work. Another young lady seems right offended when I point out errors that she's making. Another woman in the class is single with 4 children. While she's got a good attitude, she's exhausted. I had to wake her up tw...

One of my classes is an interesting study in classroom dynamics.  Although I haven’t done any formal evaluations yet, I have the sense that everyone in the class is pretty intelligent - there doesn’t seem to be anyone at sea. One particular student is pretty loudmouthed and always has something to say about anything.  Not that it’s a bad thing but sometimes his comments aren’t particularly appropriate or useful  The thing is, there are others in ...

A friend asked me to give him a hand with his computer. The printer stopped working. Simple I thought, delete and reinstall then wine and a visit. Ha. As he's got a wireless network, I figured I'd make sure that wasn't the problem so I opened his browser. It took 2 minutes to open a page. Linked to another site, still a minute or so. Time to check his programs file. No spy ware blocking, no virus protection, no firewall. However his daughter had installed (3 users all with admin pr...

LostGoogle is a neat helper object that works with Google to show a thumbnail view of the links.

After 6 years I finally got a new computer! The old one works except when it doesn't. I think the power supply is going. Anyway it's only about 500 mHz. The new one is 2.6 mHz. Only slightly faster! right. This one I had built. No software of any sort. The guy who built it for me would load everything for $50 but I figured I can manage it and have a bit of fun doing it. XP Pro went smoother than I expected and the rest was pretty easy. I had a bit of grief last night with an olde...

I want to talk a bit about our Sunday walk this week. Once a year, the Canadian Cancer Society holds their "Run for the Cure" event. In a number of locations in Canada, they have a 5 km run/walk to raise money for breast cancer research. Having a wife and 2 daughters, I see this as somewhat important. Not to mention an intrinsic interest of my own. Anyway, here we go on Sunday morning with our run tee-shirts and about 11,000 fellow walkers and runners. The weather was a bit brisk but ...

Well, let's try this again. I've always been into fitness to some degree although I do let it slide from time to time. Mostly self-oriented stuff like running, cycling and weights. Unfortunately, I kinda like my beer too. Jack Daniels is good. Vermouth I like too. You get the idea. So even though I work out regularly, I've found my blood pressure a bit high and my waist a bit bigger than I'd like. sigh. The doctor keeps saying more exercise even though at one point I was working ou...

My first blog. Another blogger got me thinking about the education of adults. Like him, I spent many years as a cook and a chef. Now I teach. I think. When I first began, I thought, "this'll be great. Students are paying good money to learn what they need to enter a new career. Keen, eager and all that". Ahh, the naivity. I'm thinking they can hardly wait for the pearls of wisdom I'm about to impart and they're thinking about the hot guy/girl across the aisle, the party they're goi...

My first blog. Another blogger got me thinking about the education of adults. Like him, I spent many years as a cook and a chef. Now I teach. I think. When I first began, I thought, "this'll be great. Students are paying good money to learn what they need to enter a new career. Keen, eager and all that". Ahh, the naivity. I'm thinking they can hardly wait for the pearls of wisdom I'm about to impart and they're thinking about the hot guy/girl across the aisle, the party they're goi...