Devauld.ca

Last weekend was a blast. Heading out to Fairmont, for a stay in the Riverside Condos, some visiting, and some site seeing was a good break from the daily grind.

The drive out was the worst part. The weather systems battling around Banff lead to a crazy amount of snow falling, and at times we had to stop because we could no longer see the road. Slowly but surely we managed to make it to our destination. We weren't a whole lot of fun on Friday as the week took it's toll, and we crashed in the king sized bed rather early.

The villa was quite nice, with a full on kitchen, radiant in floor heating, nice hardwood furniture (of which not a single drawer opened) and very well designed decor. The walls had a wallpaper on that was very cool, and very hard to tell it was wallpaper.

Saturday we went out to the Hoodoos (sand and silt pillars) to take some pictures. The sky didn't co-operate, and not very long into the trip it started to snow. After that voyage we headed out to a natural hot spring (with a bizaar name), and soaked in the sulfur laced water while it snowed. It was all very relaxing, and there were other people out there enjoying the hot mineral water. A snowball fight, and a dunk in the river tuckered me out, and we were on our way home.

Over the course of the weekend, I took over 400 pictures. From the Hoodoos, to the springs, from the gift shop to the villa, and finishing off with some big horn sheep, I managed to burn a great deal of digital film. I'm hoping to get some of the better ones off the camera to share soon, but the crazy season is starting up, and time is at a premium. I know it's a piss poor excuse, but I'm sticking to it.

I just got back from the Canada on Rails conference, and I was quite impressed. The whole thing could have been a bit more condensed, with two streams over a single day, but in the end, I learned a great deal.

I was so keen to try all the new stuff out, I managed to hijack Jerry's laptop for a few moments on the flight home to poke around a bit, to finish what I learned.

On the Thursday night of the conference a great deal of the attendees went out for Churrascaria which is always a meat lover's good time. You could tell the geek factor was very high, as most of the conversation revolved around technologies, techniques, working problems and a plethora of other geeky news.

My problem is now: I'm armed with this great view of the world, and how software should be written, but I have to go back to the enterprise where it's all about the bottom line. I'm going to fling myself against the wall until I can no longer take it, but hopefully by then we'll have a little Rails in our system.

Well my return from Texas, was no less entertaining than the trip down. I was selected in Midland for 'additional security screening' and this time it was very complete examiniation. From my shoes, through every lens, my camera, to the smallest peice of paper and pen in my bag, everything was taken out and apart before being run through the X-ray a second time. Nothing was found, of course, but standing on the cold floor in my socks for fourty some odd minutes was a drag.

I've learned that Continental has more leg room and space than American Airlines, so for anyone that buys clothes off the big person rack, go with Continental.

Once I was back on the ground in Canada, I was presented with a white wonderland of snow and cold weather. It was a let down because I was hoping to do some fencing when my mother came with weekend, although now we have the freedom to tile until we fall down from exhaustion.

The week has been very full thus far: Catching up on housework, UFC PPV at Michelle and Kuldeep's, Flames games tonight courtesy of the company, dance lessons tomorrow and a night to straighten up before the mother unit arrives will pretty much round out my week.

Everyone knows that I hate air travel. This trip was definitely no exception. A passport from Cairo, a bag packed with camera equipment and a re-enforced laptop, no sales contract and checking off that I was on a business trip with a one way ticket probably all worked together to flag me at the customs' line. The back room hasn't changed since they last renovated, and neither has the service. Sitting in the bullet proof waiting room, I was visualizing the looks on everyones' faces as I walked into the office for the standup meeting.

The officer I talked to was getting flustered as I tried to explain that I was installing a server on the customer site, but it was a machine, costing thousands of dollars, that we gave to them. Since no cost, there was no sales contract. Simple, right? Since he could find no discrepancies in my story and I don't think he wanted to deal with me at 5am on Monday morning, he let me out of the cramped outter room and out into the cattle pen of security.

An adventure, and I wasn't on the plane yet. Security was fun as well. I think I had a trainee, because she did the worst job in the whole world checking my bag. I could have hidden a live badger in the bag, and she wouldn't have found it. The lady at the X-ray turned on the strobing red lights as my bulletproof laptop, digital SLR and lenses passed through, but the red head checking my bag out didn't even look in all the compartments. The Clown Show® was in full force today.

My first flight was relatively painless, the usual half glass filled with ice, cramped quarters, crying kid and seat right over the wing (think: Photographer) ensured that I wouldn't come off the plane glowing about the leg of the voyage.

DFW was retarded. At first, I was impressed with the large glass walls, the colourful floors and walls, and the elegant skylink train linking together the five terminals. That was until they changed my gate, three times, between two of the terminals. Start at D, travel to B, find my gate, find my gate has changed, travel to A, find my gate, find my gate has changed again, travel back to B. I hummed 'send in the clowns' off key for the whole journey.

The DC-9 was no picknick either. There was a young lady with a carry-on dog, that didn't quite get the physics of the storage provided on the plane. Lady, your dog isn't going to fit in there. No big deal, dealing with it, only delayed the flight 35 minutes. If you think the rest was a bowl of roses, you should imagine six feet four inches of man stuffed into a plane layed out by a Japanese midget.

Blessed, is the fact that the business trip has gone really well. Dispite some major hang ups, I was able to persevere and clear off the majority of tasks I have to complete while down here. I may be able to go home a whole day early.