20sec | f22 | 28mm
Archive for August, 2008
Rewards
24
Aug
I’ve been using my RBC Visa since high school and I’ve collected a good number of reward points. I wasn’t gain a high number of points so I wasn’t able to redeem them for anything. Recently, I went back to check my points and saw that I had enough to redeem my points for something worthwhile.
Initially, I wanted to get a digital camera for Jenn because she was looking for one and I didn’t quite get her anything for her birthday, even though she said that the plane ticket was good enough. The camera was a Samsung L730 and it was going for 23,000 points. It is a 7.2MP digital camera with 3x optical and 15x digital zoom. Jenn was looking for a camera that would take video and it wasn’t clear that this camera did just that. We decided that she would look around for something in Hong Kong so we didn’t go with the Samsung.
Instead, I redeemed my points for a few gift cards from Futureshop, Esso and Chapters. I was going to use it all for an Esso gift card but I think it’s more worthwhile if I spend it on other stuff as well. I buy a lot of electronics and books but I don’t always have to buy gas so it didn’t make sense to use up all my points just for gas. The price of gas is just going to fluctuate so buying a gas card wouldn’t have made any difference.
It’ll be a few weeks before the gift cards actually arrive in the mail but I look forward to it. I’ve been saving my money for a while but now it’s time to actually treat myself to something nice. I haven’t bought any books lately so it’s time to add some more to my collection. I know that I still have over ten books to finish but the more that I have now, the more I can read later. It’s something for me to do to keep me busy.
I can go on a little shopping spree for a day. I can use the Esso gift card to pay for my gas. The best place to go is to Ancaster because there’s a Chapters and Futureshop is the same place. It’ll save me time and gas because I don’t have to make the trip to two different places that are far away from each other. Plus, school is coming up so maybe I can get myself something nice for school.
Kitty heaven in the sky
21
Aug
“Baby, baby!”
That is all I can hear in my head when I get home. She had just gotten home last week and I was expecting her to make a full recovery but unfortunately she didn’t make it. I think the operation was too much of a stress on her body. She was an old cat but I thought she had a few years left. She was the only cat that I actually liked having around and now I have to get used to her not sleeping by my feet.
I am sure that, like most pet owners, there comes a time when you have to cope with the lost of their beloved cats. I am not much of an animal person but I do warm up to animals if they behave. Baby was one of those animals that warmed up to me. There are the odd time where she’ll get me annoyed because she’s peeing and pooing all over the place but she was doing that because of all that extra weight in her abdomen.
There were times when she would be sleeping by my foot as I do things on the computer. One time she tried to steal my slippers. When I’m at the desk, I take off my slippers and get myself comfy. When I went to get up and go to the fridge, I couldn’t find my right slipper. My slippers are black and so was Baby. I looked at her and saw that she was sleeping on my right slipper with one of her paws on it. I look at her and she looked at me with her tongue sticking out as if she was taunting me. Her tongue sticking out was a unique feature of her’s.
I have this video of her where she’s trying to get into a box. There was nothing in the box but she was curious and I guess she was looking for food or something but the box was a bit higher than she was when she’s on all four. She tired to stand up and get into the box but she was heavier than the box and it collapsed forward and she fell into it. It was a cute video of her and her curiosity.
She was a good girl and she never really gave me any problems. Every time I called her name she would look at me or she would respond in some way. When I gave her food, she would eat what’s there. If she’s hungry and I didn’t have any food in her bowl, she would try to climb into the bag and get some herself. I found the bag all scratched up laying on the floor sometimes.
Jenn and I are going to miss her, especially Jenn since she pretty much grew up with her. Nut Nut, her daughter will probably miss her as well. I’m not sure if cats knows if something is wrong but I think they do. Nut Nut hasn’t been quite the same since Baby left. We’re not too sure why things happened so suddenly and we’re hoping that the vet can give us some answers.
Cats
18
Aug
Since I’m home alone, I have to take care of the cats and make sure that they’re doing well. In the house are two cats, the mom cat, Baby and the daughter cat, Nut Nut (Nite Nite). They’re both cool cats but sometimes they’re a little annoying, especially Nut Nut when she’s walking around the house screaming about something. It’s not hard to take care of cats because they pretty much take care of themselves but lately, Baby has been getting sick so we had to take her to the vet.
We’ve taken her to the vet before and they’re not quite sure what’s wrong with her. They’ve performed a whole bunch of test and nothing has come up solid enough to determine the exactly illness. Apparently, her body is producing a lot of white blood cells and it’s going into her abdomen and staying there. They had to drain a few liters from her belly to make it normal. I assumed that it was just something temporary because it came and went but now it’s gotten to the point there it just a bloated belly. She has trouble walking around sometimes because of the extra weight.
So far, two veterinarians have seen Baby and examined her. One says that she has some sort of E. coli infection and prescribed something to fight it and the other says it might be something else. Either way both of them have drained the fluid from her body and apparently that costs a lot. The thing that costs the most are the tests. They range anywhere between $400 to $600 to perform. And even with those tests, it’s not for sure that we’ll find out what’s wrong with her. They can run test after test and find nothing good and I’ll have to foot the bill. It has already cost me $1000 just for everything and we’re no closer to finding out what’s wrong with Baby.
I think it might be cheaper to keep her at home and make sure that she’s comfortable rather than taking her to the vet so they can drain her fluid. Every time they drain her belly, she looks depressed and sleepy. She doesn’t respond to me like she does when she’s at home. I don’t want to keep putting her through all of that and find out it’s not helping.
I took her home from the vet on Saturday only to find that they left the wound open. This was messy because she somehow managed to take off the bandage and went to go hide somewhere. I found out where she was by she was leaking fluid and left a trail. I tried to put the bandage back on her but it’s not easy doing it yourself. I had to ask my neighbour for some help but even that wasn’t good enough. Every so often she’ll somehow break free of the bandage and everything would get messy again.
I was home all day Saturday because I wanted to keep an eye on her. It was a good thing that she was sleeping most of the time otherwise things could have gotten messy again. The incision in her belly wasn’t that big but it was big enough that fluid was seeping out of it when she walked. I tried to cover it up the best I could but with every step she took, it pushed the bandage away from the wound.
I managed to wrap her wound with a few layers of gauze and bandage to prevent her from moving around and pushing the bandages off the wound. So far, after eight hours, the wrap is still around her wound. I’m hoping that it’ll stay that way until I can get her to the vet to have it stitched up. But from what the vet tells me, they don’t want to stitch it up right away because they want to continue to drain it. As far as I know, the draining part is making things worse.
For the last couple of years, Baby has had that stomach problem and she has been coping with it. Her stomach doesn’t expand after it gets to a certain size so this leads me to believe that her body is producing those white blood cells to accommodate for something. Removing it will cause her body to replenish what was lost which is why I want the vets to stitch up the wound. They are thinking otherwise and recommend that I don’t stitch it up just yet.
Unless they are willing to pay for everything, I can’t afford to leave it open. The wound is probably getting infected as it’s left open and fluid will continue to leak from it unless it gets sealed. I can’t afford any more tests to be done on her because I’m running out of funds. If they don’t know what’s wrong with her now, they’ll have to wait until I can afford further testing. I just want Baby to heal so that she can feel more comfortable around the house. She was able to cope with the bloated belly before so I’m sure that she can cope with it later.
See you in September
12
Aug
I’ve just received confirmation from McMaster stating that they are offering me admission for the September 2008 semester. It took a while for them to get back to me and I was starting to lose hope but I finally got a reply on the status of my application. Now I just have to wait until Friday to start registering for my courses.
Since September was just around the corner, I emailed one of my programming professors who is now taking care of the joint program and asked him about my application. According to his reply, he was supposed to sign something and had to request it from someone else. So this whole time, someone was holding onto my application and it has just been sitting there waiting for a signature. If I hadn’t email anyone to ask about it, chances are it would have been sitting there collecting dust if I hadn’t said anything.
I’ll be going back to school part time which means evening and weekend classes. The degree program should take me two years to complete if I pass everything. I’m hoping that I can handle the full load of full time work and part time school. It’s going to take a lot of concentrate to ensure that I stay focus and keep on the right path. If I start to slack off, there’s a good chance that I’ll fail.
I won’t be able to register for any classes until they’ve sent me the official offer letter. I’m not sure how long that will take to arrive in the mail but I’m hoping that it’ll be quick because classes start during the first week of September and I don’t want to miss out on anything.
Then there’s the matter of paying for it all. My workplace has a tuition reimbursement program but I’m still waiting for my manager to approve it. He said that my training request is a special case and needs approval of someone higher up. I’m not going to sit around and wait for someone’s approval to take school. I submitted the request way back in January and I haven’t received a single reply. I didn’t even getting a confirmation that the email was received. When I see my manager, I’ll ask and he’ll tell me verbally but that’s not good enough for me. It’s very unprofessional for someone in a managerial position to take their time and sit on a request when timing is an issue. I could have been attending school since February if everything was processed properly. Whether they pay for it or not, I’m continuing with my degree.
I’m very anxious to get things started but I might not feel that way once school starts. I hope to keep this enthusiastic momentum going until the end of the semester. It’s been about three years since I’ve been in school so I’ll have to get used to it. It does feel a little odd being 27 years old and still attending school but I have a goal that I’m trying to reach and I won’t let anything stop me.
Tobermory, Ontario
11
Aug
If you ever get a chance to go up north, Tobermory is a very beautiful place to visit. It has the clearest blue water that I’ve ever seen. It’s a very busy tourist location with lots of things to do. Anyone who loves the outdoors will definitely love Tobermory.
Tobermory is located about four hours from Hamilton. Since it’s four hours away, we decided that it’s best that we stay there for more than a day. Although we didn’t quite stay there that long, we were there long enough to do the things that we wanted to do. Well, maybe not everything but almost everything.
Miles after miles you see nothing but green. I had the window down a lot because the air was very fresh. If you live in an area that has a lot of pollution, I’m sure you can tell what fresh air smells like. The air out there is so much easier to breathe in. The only scent that didn’t smell very appealing was manure. We passed by a lot of farms that had moo cows and horse. During the drive pass those areas, we had the window up.
Jenn wanted to do a dinner on a cruise thing but I was afraid that I might not be able to stomach the food on a moving boat. Sometimes I don’t have a problem with boat rides but other times I’ll get a little queasy from the rocking. But the more that I think about it no, the less queasy I think I would have been. I guess I was afraid of ruining the dinner if I started to feel like I wanted to vomit.
The first thing you’ll notice about Tobermory that it’s packed. I don’t know if it’s like this all of the time but during the time that I was there, the place was busy. It’s not as busy as, say, a concert or anything. The dock area had a lot of traffic from people walking in and out of the area.
The people who live in Tobermory probably don’t live too far from the water. Just by looking, you can probably tell who’s a local and who’s a tourist. That day, there were a lot of Chinese tourists. When we took the boat out to Flowerpot Island, the transfer boat was filled with Chinese people.
The boat that took us to Flowerpot Island stopped by an area where there was a shipwreck. The water was clear enough for you to see the ship that was sitting on the lake floor. They said that were about twenty different shipwrecks in the area but I guess you need to go scuba diving if you wanted to see the others. The water was calm enough for us to be able to see this particular shipwreck.
After visiting the shipwrecks, the boat brought us out to Flowerpot Island. The island received its name from the two rock formation that looks similar to a flower pot. These flowerpots were shaped by glaciers and pounding waves. Supposedly, there were three flowerpots but one of them fell down.
We had to walk quite the distance to reach the flowerpots. We stuck to the shoreline because Jenn wanted to avoid the mosquitoes. If we had taken the trail, we would have reached the rock formation a lot sooner but it was nice to walk along the shoreline. The path was a bit tricky though because we had to watch our footing or else we’d slip. Some of the rocks that we stepped on weren’t stable so we had to take it slow. It was a nice little exercise.
There were a few people going swimming in the area so we tried to do that too. I had to get change into my swimming shorts because the shorts that I was wearing weren’t for swimming. If I had known how cold the water was, I probably would have stayed out. The water was cold enough that other tourists were using the water to keep their watermelons cold. Not only was the water cold but the waves were pretty strong as well. I don’t think I went out more than a foot. We stayed in the water for a few minutes before jumping out. On our way back to the docks, we decided to take the trail.
We spend the rest of the day walking around the pier and visiting the local ships. There was an all you can eat fish and chips restaurant but I didn’t have the stomach for all you can eat. Jenn and I ordered one fish and chips each and that’s all we were able to eat.
Jenn and I enjoyed our time in Tobermory. I was happy we were able to spend our last few days together doing something rather than sitting around the house. Although we didn’t quite get to do everything on Jenn’s to do list, I’m glad that I brought her out to Tobermory. It was a nice and relaxing getaway from the city.
Gone
09
Aug
Earlier today, I took Jenn to the airport. It was a sad day for the both of us since we have to part ways for another six months or so. This long distance relationship stuff is hard, mostly on her. I’m able to bear most of the pain and hold back the tears so that she doesn’t see but Jenn on the other hand, cannot hold back the tears.
Jenn was in Canada on vacation for just about two months. These last two months were the best part of the summer. The only thing was we only started having fun during the last two weeks of her stay. There was so much more that we wanted to do but didn’t get a chance to do. I guess the last two weeks only seemed fun because it was filled with activities. Also, it could be the fact that I booked my last remained vacation off to spend time with Jenn.
This summer I went to a few places that I’ve never been to before. I went to a dinner and show at Medieval Times and visited Casa Loma. The visit to Medieval Time was awesome. I had a good time watching the live show and Jenn and I especially loved the half roasted chicken that was served.
We spent a lot of time together and I’m sure that we made the most of our time together. I think we practically spend every waking moment together. Well, when I wasn’t at work, I was with her. She’s a night owl so she spend most of her night online doing stuff and wouldn’t get to bed until the early morning. By the time I get back home for lunch, she’ll only be waking up.
I’ve already started the countdown until the day that I’m heading to Hong Kong. Chinese New Year is going to fall during the end of January this year so I’ll be heading over there a bit earlier. I’m planning on booking every single vacation day that I have off just for this trip. I won’t be seeing her for another six month after that so I want to make the most of it.
A part of me thinks that we didn’t quite maximize our days together. We had two months together but we didn’t quite do anything until the end. I initially had plans on taking Jenn to New York City but we never got around to it. I guess there’s always a next time.