Tuesday, January 30
May the House Hunt Begin
Last week Joy and I went into TD to get a pre-approval for a house mortgage. Today (unofficially yesterday) we got confirmation that the pre-approval was successful. So at this point we can now start the hunt for a home of our own. :)
Monday, January 29
Adobe Lightroom
Well I just pre-ordered Adobe Lightroom (LR) a couple hours ago. About a week or two ago I started using the LR beta to manage my digital photo workflow--basically going from importing, to rating, labelling, adjusting, and archiving. The initial reason behind my adoption of LR over iPhoto was that LR allowed me to manage the organization of the photos on disk. But through using it I found it much easier to actually "process" my photos and also be able to find them afterwards.
I will leave the in-depth details behind the switch once I have the 1.0 release (should be mid-February).
I will leave the in-depth details behind the switch once I have the 1.0 release (should be mid-February).
Eek! Sitting Pretty
So Eek! is becoming quiet the lazy kitten. And I thought I would share with everyone an example of it.
Sunday, January 28
Snowboarding Follow-Up
Well Joy and I successfully made it to and from Holiday Valley. The drive from Kitchener to Wainfleet (in the Niagara region) wasn't the fastest due to the amount of snow falling in the Kitchener area and all the way to Hamilton. For that leg of the journey we were limited to about 70-90 km/h. However, once we went over the Niagara escarpment the weather got much nicer and the trip from Hamilton (the point at which we transferred from 6 onto the 403) until we arrived at Joy's parent's house was much nicer...and quicker.
Saturday morning had us up and on the road to Holiday Valley by 10am--not as early as we hoped but we got a nice visit in with Joy's parents. During the 130 km trip we were presented with rain and such, but by the time we had arrived at the ski resort it had shifted back to snow.
The conditions on the hill were alright. It was hard-packed snow however there were a fair number of places where the snow had been scrapped off, by boarders and skiers alike), leaving ice. This was much better than last time when we went to Holiday Valley, which consisted of mostly man-made snow and ice patches. It was a fun day, and enjoyable increase in run variety and length (Chicopee is just a convenience).
There were a couple things we noticed different about the patrons. There seemed to be a significantly lower percentage of snowboarder (Chicopee had around equal representation), and much less people wore helmets, whereas at Chicopee the majority had helmets. We'll have to take a census at Blue Mountain to add to the sampling before drawing any significant comparisons.
The trip back from Wainfleet from Holiday Valley was slower going due to the fact it was now snowing throughout NY state (or at least the parts we saw). I don't think that the US219 highway had any kind of preparation for the snowfall since the lanes weren't cleared and didn't notice any salt/sand on the roadway. Which was very apparent once we crossed into Canada and we could hear the salt on the road (oh and we actually saw the trucks out ploughing and salting/sanding). With all that we only saw one crazy SUV/minivan driver go into the ditch, however I suspect if we spent any more time on that road we would have seen more.
Oh, the roof-racks work marvellously. It is so much nicer to just stick the boards on the roof and not have to cram them into the back of the car. It was definitely a good purchase.
Saturday morning had us up and on the road to Holiday Valley by 10am--not as early as we hoped but we got a nice visit in with Joy's parents. During the 130 km trip we were presented with rain and such, but by the time we had arrived at the ski resort it had shifted back to snow.
The conditions on the hill were alright. It was hard-packed snow however there were a fair number of places where the snow had been scrapped off, by boarders and skiers alike), leaving ice. This was much better than last time when we went to Holiday Valley, which consisted of mostly man-made snow and ice patches. It was a fun day, and enjoyable increase in run variety and length (Chicopee is just a convenience).
There were a couple things we noticed different about the patrons. There seemed to be a significantly lower percentage of snowboarder (Chicopee had around equal representation), and much less people wore helmets, whereas at Chicopee the majority had helmets. We'll have to take a census at Blue Mountain to add to the sampling before drawing any significant comparisons.
The trip back from Wainfleet from Holiday Valley was slower going due to the fact it was now snowing throughout NY state (or at least the parts we saw). I don't think that the US219 highway had any kind of preparation for the snowfall since the lanes weren't cleared and didn't notice any salt/sand on the roadway. Which was very apparent once we crossed into Canada and we could hear the salt on the road (oh and we actually saw the trucks out ploughing and salting/sanding). With all that we only saw one crazy SUV/minivan driver go into the ditch, however I suspect if we spent any more time on that road we would have seen more.
Oh, the roof-racks work marvellously. It is so much nicer to just stick the boards on the roof and not have to cram them into the back of the car. It was definitely a good purchase.
Friday, January 26
Snowboarding News
So in the past week Joy & I finally managed to make it out to the ski hills for some snowboarding. It had been next to impossible previously due to the lack of snow and unusually warm weather. However, last Sunday, and again on Tuesday night, we made it over to Chicopee Ski club in Kitchener.
Now it isn't the best hill in the world, but it is close to home--15 minute drive--and isn't very expensive. We really just wanted to get back into the swing of things before heading out to the real ski hills. Joy wanted to try out her new board and get a feel for it before venturing to far.
We've also made the smart move and purchased helmets, so now we are safer on the hills. Oh, just last night we received the roof-racks with ski/snowboard attachment. We installed it and ensured our boards fit nicely--which they do.
So, now that we are all decked out we are off to Holiday Valley in Ellicottville, NY this weekend. With a stop-off at Joy's parent's Friday night and Saturday night, with daytime Saturday for snowboarding.
I'll post how it goes.
Now it isn't the best hill in the world, but it is close to home--15 minute drive--and isn't very expensive. We really just wanted to get back into the swing of things before heading out to the real ski hills. Joy wanted to try out her new board and get a feel for it before venturing to far.
We've also made the smart move and purchased helmets, so now we are safer on the hills. Oh, just last night we received the roof-racks with ski/snowboard attachment. We installed it and ensured our boards fit nicely--which they do.
So, now that we are all decked out we are off to Holiday Valley in Ellicottville, NY this weekend. With a stop-off at Joy's parent's Friday night and Saturday night, with daytime Saturday for snowboarding.
I'll post how it goes.
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