Author: Neil

I have kind of kept it on the down low, not really saying much about it. But Bonnie has been really sick the last 2 months, since right around Christmas. It was a mast cell tumor on her back right flank. She has been on a series of meds to help shrink the tumor so that it could be operable as it was too large to be operated on at the time. Things seemed to be going well, although the mass was not really shrinking in size.

Last week, the mass grew again. This time it expanded around back towards her colon and even pushed her tail out of place. Her discomfort began to grow, but she seemed in good spirits. She was full of energy and life up until Friday…Friday morning she was sick. She had been chewing on my socks and even eaten a small bit, so we believed (hoped) that was all it was. We were wrong. By the end of Friday it was apparent she was losing the battle. This morning she could not stand or walk on her own, she refused to eat, we had to force her to drink water by feeding her through a syringe, and she was whimpering in pain.

So this morning we rushed her to the vet, hoping anything could be done. Turns out Jaundice had set in, most likely due to the condition she was in from the tumor and the meds. So at 12:05pm today Bonnie passed away at the Sources Animal Hospital. It has been one of the hardest and most heart wrenching things to deal with as late. It is never easy losing those you love. Bonnie was like a young sibling or even a daughter to me. No matter how much you try to prepare yourself for something like this it doesn’t help, at all…The house will seem empty without her.

Rest in peace Bonnie, there is now no more pain for you to endure. Thank you for coming into my life and bringing me so much joy.

So, i ran across this today. Maybe people knew about it already, but watching it i was laughing pretty good. It’s an entire satire web show called the Guild, directed towards people addicted too WoW. It stars Felicia Day (Who is hot, and is actually addicted to WoW apparently. She is the girl in Dr. Horrible).

I first found:

Then there is the actual series. Season one is made up of 10 episodes, at about four to five minutes each. Can be found here at The Guild

Check it out if you haven’t seen it before.

Man what an emotional rollercoaster ride this past week has been. For those that don’t know, Angie and I officially made an offer on a townhouse last Sunday. This very cute place in Vaudreuil-Dorion, it is actually really close to Cliff’s parents place. It has been a long week.

It all started with us making a slightly higher initial offer then we had really wanted. This was due to misinformation/misunderstanding from the sellers agent. Big confusion about an open house, we understood it as the place we wanted was going to have an open house and had other interested parties. So we were advised at this point to make are “best offer” and avoid any negotiations. In the long run we are still okay with that, nothing too major. So the seller accepted are offer, and then we found out the open house was on another property her agent was selling. Hence the confusion.

That aside, we were happy. Then it turns out our mortgage rep was on vacation. Our rep also just happened to forget to leave our file with her replacement, even after we explained to her we were in the process of looking at places and to leave our file accessible. Not amused. The replacement rep though was awesome, and finally got us what we needed. Although it made the fact that we had a pre-approved mortgage not work out as the huge time saver it should have been. Instead of a relaxed 3-4 days while waiting for the mortgage we had a hectic four days and scrambling to verify our pre-approval via multple faxes and stress.

Finally with all that settled, we did our inspection last night. The inspector was some chatty chinese fella, very nice, but very chatty. He even offered us helpful suggestions like “If you guys don’t like the paint, you can change it!” Good to know, never would have guessed!!! All in all though a good guy that was very helpful in walking us first time home buyers through an inspection.

All this has now officially led us to decide that we are gonna be taking the place, and as of Tuesday the final paper work will be signed. At least until we hit the notary a few days before we take possession to truly finalize the deal. We officially take possession August 29th. So anyone not busy on the 29th, we need to talk 😉 Pizza and beer for anyone that helps us move! Not much too move, just one really heavy desk and the rest is easy!

There is a perfect spot in the basement for my future warhammer table, and Angie has already given me the greenlight. So i’m hoping to have it all ready to go by the end of October. Maybe we could schedule in a halloween warhammer weekend 2 😉

The place is great overall, large kitchen, big yard, three bedrooms, soundproof hometheater basement, all in all a fantastic place. Can’t wait to show it off! 🙂

Hi everybody!!!

How ya all doing? Feels like I don’t really keep in touch with everyone very well. Aside from a few comments on Curts site or D&D nights seems like I barely talk to anyone often. Guess it doesn’t help that I barely use my facebook, I’m not a “twit” (if that is indeed the correct term), I don’t use googletalk much (although I should try to), and so on.

So I guess this is kind of like one of Carls big “how the he’ll is everyone?” blog posts.

Lately I have been just struggling through most days. Work keeps getting me down. Can’t stand working around so much ego all the damn time. Especially in such a crappy go no where job like this. I keep trying to shake things up and make some drastic changes, but alas they seem to fall through way to often.

I was pushing so hard so that I could begin making the move to ontario this year. But that has already been postponed until next year. Need to finish school, sigh. Still not sure if I will be able to cut out a career In photography. I love it, but I just don’t know if I have it in me to make it work. I will always practice it and maybe do some on the side. All I know is I need to figure something out, I need to know what it feels like to actually have a career…

On the home front, even though the house is looking better then it has in years it still aggravates me how much is left too do. Seems like it will always be a work in progress. My aunt wants it ready to sell by sept 1st but nobody is in a hurry to help me out with labour or financials… Angie and I are looking to get our own place to live for the next year so we can finish school. We laready have a place we like and will be making an offer Saturday. I am Hoping having a place to call my own will help with stress.

Anyways, guess I should wrap this up, my day is about to start. Maybe if people are free tonight we can play some lfd or tf2 or something tonight. As much as I love warhammer seems like it is all I’m doing lately.

How you all doing? I know it wasn’t that long ago you guys were all down for my bday, but it actually feels like it’s been ages.

e on the side

Man John, you got gipped on your wedding cake topper! Should have considered some of these options!

Nerdiest cake toppers!

Hey boys,

So like the title says, what a week…

As usual for a vacation i take, no part of it has been easy. Starting with the actually getting one part. I had had this vacation postponed last minute by management not once, but twice. I then only got this vacation grudgingly, as one of my managers was doing everything in her power to cancel it again…anyways i digress.

So finally i got my vacation, and yet it really was not a vacation. A vacation too me is a time to relax with no worries, and no hassles. I wish I could actually get that too happen. Between more class projects, financial woes, going for a mortgage pre-approval, dropping my mom off at rehab today…and the usual stresses of daily life, this has been one crazy vacation and I am beat. So it makes sense I go back to work tomorrow stressed out and as annoyed as when I went on vacation…lucky me.

Seems every plan I have in life gets overshadowed by everyone elses, like mine just don’t matter to anyone. Yeah, maybe i am being a little pessimistic and maybe a touch dramatic. But dammit, i don’t give a crap. I just want school over, work to go f%$k it’s self, people too let me do the things i would like to do for a change, and for the same people to stop assuming I am an idiot and always wrong about everything. I am not asking for the world here… well maybe i am, gosh. I mean come on, i bend over backwards to make people as happy as i possibly can. Then they just seem to turn around and ask for more, or don’t appreciate what i do do (lol, i used do do…doodoo…). Kinda sick of it. I am just exhausted…

Rant off…

Hey boys,

So i was flipping through Savage Worlds and then i had a thought. I thought “hey, maybe i’ll run a one shot. Hell maybe it may even become a mini campaign!” So i will hit you with it, get some feed back, see who’s interested, and then see about getting it started.

So here is the very brief synopsis to tantalize your imaginations and get you hooked (I hope): “It is 1917. The Great War seems to be slowly drawing to it’s end, but is it really? The series of events that lead up to the great war overshadowed a dramatic event that took place in the frozen lands of Tunguska, in Siberia. What could have possibly caused such devastation? What could it have been? What does it mean? What if it happened again? The truth could change the very face of the world. Is the world ready for the truth? Are you?”

Players could be anything they want to be in this campaign that fits the time period. This means best bets would be Infantryman, Flyboy, Scientist, Gunner. Something military in any regard. The style would be fairly pulp, ie: Indiana Jones and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. I actually picked up a couple of books in the bargain section of chapters on WW1, i want to make it fairly acurate historicaly while making it all my own at the same time. Characters will be veterans of the war and be somewhat familiar with more of the “experimental weaponry” of the day ie: tanks, aircraft, mortar then the regular trooper. Obviously the players would be of the Allied Forces (Russian Empire, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Italy, France, Russia the Empire of Japan, and the United States), unless enough players wanted to be of the Central powers (German Empire, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria).

So If people like the sound of this, reply and let me know. I will post more details later, i hope to be ready for this to start in the next two weeks or so. If there is enough interest.

So I figured it would be good to mention this now. First, i can’t make it for Wednesday afterall. I have been invited to a Passover dinner. I am also busy Thursday night helping my sister, so if we wanted to try and reschedule the game then it would have to be Tuesday night. If people do not mind then great, if it is a problem the I unfortunately will miss the game this week. I will send out an e-mail to see what people think on rescheduling.

My other bad news is that it turns out I won’t be able to make it to Toronto next weekend. Turns out that because of the nature of how I was able to get the class I wanted this semester, we won’t also be able to enjoy the long weekend. Which sucks cause I really wanted to play some Warhammer 40k…I primed my Necrons, and mustered my Guardsmen…Looks like i won’t be fielding my Guard until the new codex. I will have the week before John’s wedding off from work. Maybe i can work out a pre-wedding trip the weekend before. You’ll be sick of me this summer Curt 😉

My class will also be keeping me very busy for the next ten weeks, I have five full blown projects to do. The first one being due in two weeks. I am planning ahead so that I will be able to keep Wednesdays free for D&D though. Hopefully all will go well and they won’t interfere with each other. Only way they should is if i fall behind in doing my work.

So that is that for now. If there are any further changes i will keep you updated.

So i was bumming around the intertubes and came across this. Not sure if anyone else has seen this before, but it was new to me.

It’s this pretty cool little interactive zombie movie. You watch a scene and then make a decision, the next scene will reveal the consequences of your decision. If people survive you get to make another decision. My first attempt i got everyone killed by scene 4…what can i say, nobody’s perfect lol…

What would you do?

Edit: Yes, the audio/video sync is way off for the first scene. As far as i can tell though it is the only one out of sync. Just incase anyone gets confused or something 😉

So just sitting here on a nice queit Friday night, killing Sister’s of Battle in Soulstorm, and reflecting on the craziness of the past week and more. Seemed like a good time to take a second and kind of pull out a Carl-esque blog post. Had some things i’ve wanted to catch you guys up on for the last few days, but just have not had the time.

To start, i guess i will open big, Angie and i broke up last Saturday.  It wasn’t too pretty and it was all rather spur of the moment. Monday though we sat back down and talked for about 3 hours and have ended it all on good terms. In fact i would say our friendship is much stronger for it, but whether we get back together in the future is very uncertain. The reasons behind this split was pretty much my doing, in the sense that i had lost that connection we shared. I came to love her more as a sister and friend then as a girlfriend or potential wife. Other reasons being stress. The relationship was causing me so much stress, on top of school and work, that i was burning out.  Burning out fast. So it was the best move so as not to cause each other more harm further down. You cannot have a healthy relationship if one person is holding back and i had been holding back and drifting out of this relationship for the last two months. So it was time to call it.

That being said i am staying positive. My stress levels have already shot down a fair amount and things are getting easier. Thank god i have no school next week, it could not have come at a better time. School has been going great so far, i think i am really finding my niche with this product photography thing. It may not be what i want to do exactly, but i am enjoying it thouroughly. The only difficult aspects are the 16 hour days when i have class and keeping on top of my assignments. That was why i had to miss the last D&D session. I was so close to not getting my last assignment done due to everything else going on i really had to focus on it.  That was very stressful.  Managed to get it done though and i think i did good on it. I am hoping to get head of the game next week by completing as many of my up coming assignments as i possibly can.

My Mom has not been helping matters much either. It’s sad it has taken me this long to do it, but hopefully in the next couple of weeks she will be living at a rehab center. There is one 45 minutes away from Montreal, it’s a 3-4 month program from what i understand. We are hoping she will go willingly, if not, then it all depends on how much flexibility i have to forcefully enroll her.

I have been renovating the house, the basement is looking pretty darn good these days. not 100% done yet though. The floor is in, i just need to finish patching the walls and paint. then is tart the upstairs. Everyone that comes over now is amazed by how fresh the basement smells and feels now. I am sorry for all the times you guys spent the weekend in there before, but next time you guys are over it will knock your socks off! I am hoping to buy the house from my mom after the summer or earlier if i can.

Work has been getting better. Still not the greatest thing ever but it is manageable. i already have a lot of plans now though for what i will be doing in the near future. I may have to stay at Pharmaprix a few extra months but i can bare it. Not too sound like an ass but for the last little while there has been a girl at work i had a thing for, turns out she has also had a thing for me too. In the near future we are going to be meeting up for drinks or maybe even dinner. I don’t want that to sound cold, just having split from Angie a week ago, but i gotta keep things rolling or else i may come down off this positive track i am riding and crash hard. I gotta take the opportunities when i can and see where things lead me. Besides, it’s just drinks or dinner not like i am saying i am going out with her right away. I would never want to hurt anyone on a rebound hook up. Guess i still just have to try and convince myself it’s ok and not feel like a complete bastard.

Guess those are the major highlights right now. Got some pipe dreams me and the brother in-law are kicking around. Might be helping them a bit with their potential new side business for some extra cash. Looking forwad to finally finishing the paint work on my Warhammer army so i can finally buy my command squad and atleast be able to field my army. Small as it is. Don’t worry Curt, i see us duking it out by the summer. I’ll take a week off work and come down for a few days with the army. We can butcher each other to our hearts content. We should mark that on a calendar!

Felt good to vent/rant/blog about the last little while, didn’t seem like so much was going on until i wrote it all down. Even then i am sure i am still missing some things!

Now i am heading back to kicking the sisters of battle’s asses with my underdogs! Hoo-Ah!

Hey hey!

So to make it all official Angie and i are looking to head down to the TO area Dec 19th to visit friends & family, we will be staying the weekend, most likely heading back to MTL on the Mon the 22nd to enjoy the rest of our week off and Christmas.

I was wondering who would be up for a trip to Medieval Times on Sat the 20th at 7:30pm or even Sun the 21st for 4:00pm. We would need to be there about an hour and a half before the start time, like last time we went. Again i would get all the tickets in advance at the same time (again i would be aiming for front row, so that would run about $95 after tax per person, the price went up a little bit).

I know that Angie, myself, and one of Angie’s friends that lives in Oakville will be attending.  I am now extending the general invite to those in the GTA, ie Curt, Elly, Joe, and any others that wish to come. Also the invite is of course good for anyone else from MTL area that wants in, although i cannot gaurantee a lift to TO for people at this time. Those details would still need to be ironed out.

Hoping people are free that weekend, i know it is close to the holidays, but thought we could all use this especially after talking about it at Carl’s a few weeks back when you TO boys were down.  So let me know what you all think and we can start looking at making things official, also let me know which day would be preferred the Sat or the Sun show. Angie and I are good with either, so whatever works for your schedules is fine by us.

Hey guys!

I am starting to shop around now for a new computer. I may only actually buy it in a few months but i figure if i can atleast get a good idea on what i want/need and get a rough idea for a price then i will be one more step in the right direction.

I am budgeting for about $1500, i may be willing to go up to $2000. Either way i want to get the most bang for my buck. I am aiming for a intel quad core machine with the ability to run two or more video cards with atleast 8gb of ram and all i know is i want a lot of USB ports. I have no idea about specific parts or brands right now (Aside from what Curt and Joe were telling me about at breakfast last Sunday). I went on to a local shops pc building app and tossed something together but if i understood the app i had some kind of conflict somewhere.

So if anyone has a few spare minutes and can give me an example of a good system along these lines i would appreciate it 🙂

Thanks in advance!

Well guys, i just want to say thanks again. Yesterday was very awesome. I guess deep down when you get older it means a lot more to you when people remember and care about your birthing day and such. Seeing everyone was great and i had a great time, hope everyone else had a great time too.

Also thanks again for the awesome gift (i will consider it one gift in two parts :wink:) I can’t wait to get at it and get them all together.

Carl, thanks for letting us use your new home, let Marie know how much i appreciate it too. Was very awesome of you to allow us to have the party there considering your still just settling in. Happy belated anniversary also. I am such a douche. I remembered before, forgot it over the weekend, and then just remembered now. I must be getting old. If you are free Tuesday night i can bike over and we can finish that desk.

So guys, just wow, is all i can say. Thanks for the great B-Day, can’t express how much i appreciated it. Was great to see everyone and i am glad Joe could make it also, i know his schedule can make it tough especially on what i assume could be considered short notice. You guys rock!

Edit: Leman Russ is under construction! WOOT!