Travel

No, I'm not even going to try to catch you up on everything since my last blog post.  I'm not even sure I remember everything since my last blog post.

The exciting news that moves me to type now is that I am officially traveling to Novi Sad, Serbia at the end of the month. I know, I know... it's hardly a tourism hot spot! But I'm traveling for work and any travel that is paid for by someone else is good travel in my book. :) The sad part is that I will be missing Hallowe'en and the Colin James concert that I bought tickets for back in the spring. Oh well, Stuart is going to take our friend Mike - who's never seen him before. *gasp*
On the plus side, I get to travel with my friend and manager, Angela. And she's been there before, so it'll be like having a native.

Why does work need me to go to Serbia, of all places? I know that's what you're thinking. Well, the team developing the electrical vertical of our SCADA product is based there. We've spent the last year asking if they'd need documentation and being told that they'd be doing it themselves. Am I surprised that they eventually decided that they couldn't/wouldn't do it? No, not really. So now I'm an unofficial team lead for the project, off to meet the developers, see the system in it's native environment and develop the doc.  Wheeee!!!

Since I'm traveling with Ang, I have high hopes that we'll be able to squish in at least a bit of touristy stuff.  I'm sure there'll be at least one shopping trip, there's apparently a fort with catacombs that I'd like to check out and at least one LHC member who's interested in meeting up.  Maybe I can combine some of that? Hmmm...

I also think that this is a good excuse to do some clothes shopping.  I've actually managed to lose some weight with the low carb thing - to the point that most of my pants are in a continual state of trying to slide off.  I wanted to hold off on buying much, to see just much I lost, but I recently broke down and bought a pair of SIZE 9 pants that were on sale. (For explanation, I can't remember wearing size 9 since I hit puberty - although sizing has gotten so weird, I'm not sure what that really means.)  At any rate, having pants that stay in place when I move around is amazingly fantastic!

So, since Ang tells me that the Serbian ladies dress to impress and since this weight loss thing is a steady but slow process... I think I can justify a new suit and maybe a blouse or two. I'm not sure when I'll manage this, but surely I can get out to the shops at some point in the next month.  Also in the upcoming shopping plans - an ereader.  Probably a KoboGlo.  I liked Ang's Kindle except for the fact that you can't read it in the dark. I was looking at the Kindle with nightlight at first, but they don't have a set "available in Canada" date, whereas the KoboGlo should be out at the end of the week. Plus, they are friendlier to non-DRM formats.  And I also need to replace my iPhone. I know they say that technology doesn't break down, it only becomes obsolete, but I think they lie. The battery in my poor ol' 3GS is toasty and even with the iOS6 loaded, it's getting slower and s l o w e r and s  l  o  w  e  r.... So the plan is to buy a 4S straight from Apple and hook it up with Virgin on their $20 or $25 plan.  Even paying for the full cost upfront, the plan savings (as compared to what Roger's will offer us) will have us breaking even after a year and half.  After that, it's all gravy!