Well, while you guys on the Rock and in Canmore were enjoying snow, snow and more snow,



those of us in Toronto were trying to find our extra sweaters as the temperature dropped to actual season norms. It's back to milder weather today though


but last weekend while it was pretty frigid we had some friends over (see picture below) and we warmed up with spicey latin fare and a little concoction called Tail of the Monkey (coffee, cinnamon and tequila). Let's just say, I required a little of the "hair of the Monkey that bit me" the next day. As the next day was SuperBowl Sunday, it was pretty easy for me to blend in on the couch.
This week has been pretty uneventful, except for a Java course Angela and I have signed up for. We both feel a little overwhelmed by learning a programming language. One minute of inattentiveness and POW...well, you missed something important. As Angela is fond of saying "Our brains just aren't as "Pink" (read: Young) as they used to be." I'll let you know how it goes.
P.S. I just got photos back from the trip to San Francisco and I'll try and post them as soon as possible.

I'm still hanging out in San Francisco. Today has been one of those mixed days of meetings, and quietly getting work done (well sort of). You can see from this live Web cam (which is close to the office) that it has been pretty much overcast and wet here.
On my way to the office this morning I past our old office location, which is now a Mexican embassy, and there was a line up about 200 metres long of people trying to get in. I think they were looking for information about relatives in Mexico after the big quake there. There are a lot of Mexicans living and working in the Bay area so the earth quake has been a big story here.
Tonight I'll meet a friend from Sheridan College who lives here in San Francisco. Then tomorrow I probably won't do too much because everyone I would need to meet will be in another meeting or will have left town. I do have a breakfast meeting set up, but I think the work side of the conversation will just be wrapping up what we did this week, and asking how the coffee is. Sometimes it can be hard work in different office because no one knows who you are and you don't know where anything is. For now, I'll enjoy it. There was talk of meeting again in three weeks, which would mean another trip to San Fran but then Toronto was picked as the location because it was easier for everyone to get there. That is fine by me. One trip to California a year is fun, but two trips in three weeks would be a real pain in the ass.
I took some pictures around the office and I'll try to post them as soon as I get them developed. Hopefully faster than the Europe trip photos. I promise.

So for all of you who think it's absolutely balmy in San Francisco - think again. But it's still warmer than Toronto and there's less snow than St.John's. It's more like Vancouver at the moment.
I'm in San Fran until Friday, for work. When I got here, Oakland was cleaning up from the rioting after the Raiders won their big game to get into the Superbowl, so I'm pretty glad I'm on the opposite side of the Bay. Apparently, more avocados are consumed on SuperBowl Sunday than any other day of the year - all in the form of guacamole and nachos. Speaking of which, I had a Californian Breakfast treat this morning - The Breakfast Burrito - scrambled eggs, potatoes, ham, cheese and guacamole all wrapped in a big flat bread. Didn't have to eat for the rest of the day. The last couple of days have been really pretty dull. I find myself just sitting there, zoning out, thinking "do I really work for this company? Is this what I do for a living?" I guess so, because, here I am. No sight seeing on this trip though, I might try to slip out tomorrow at lunch to see the Cartoon Museum. I'm not really sure what day it is. Tuesday. I think. I go back on Friday but I leave in the morning so it really only gives me an extra night in San Fran. I'll probably end up working. It'll be crunch time and deadlines when I get back.

Saturday, we plan on having some friends over like Dave and Rebecca (pictured here in Manchester) and a few other friends from Angela's class. I guess I can call them former classmates now. Believe me it's still a relief. This meal we're having Saturday is to fight the January Blues. We've left up the Christmas lights especially for the occassion. I'll have to send out a photo of the apartment decorated for Christmas. It was pretty nice. So I have a nice meal and some friends to look forward to when I get home.

Enter the World of Fornasetti is an online mini-exhibit of the designer/artist Piero Fornasetti. Ettore Sottsass wrote the introduction and there are plenty of nice photos of Fornasetti's best known pieces.

This is the first in what I hope will be a regular thing. Posting to a central place rather than an e-mail may seem slightly impersonal but I just thought I would try it and see how it works.
This week has been all about back to work for me and about looking for work for Angela. Let's just say, she's weighing her options. We've officially started looking for another apartment. We figured if we waited until we were going to buy a place we would go nuts. The current apartment is cosy. By cosy, of course, I mean it's like one of those 1 ft x 1 ft x 1ft acrylic boxes that contortionists squeeze into at freak shows or on shows like "That's Incredible". At any rate, we're looking for something a little bigger/ better/ higher/ faster/ stronger...that's right - this is the Olympics of Apartment hunting and we want Gold!
In some desparate attempt to prolong that Holiday feeling we've been seeing a lot of films lately. We Rented Human Nature on Saturday, which is very funny;
basically it's the story of a guy raised in the woods who is discovered by a scientist who tries to teach him table manners. Then we saw Gangs of New York which is sort of a long, sprawling, unfocused movie held together with editor's splicing tape and Daniel Day-Lewis. It's kind of like Age of Innocence plus Escape from New York or something. Can't really recommend it. Last night we saw, Spirited Away, a Japanese animated film. If it didn't make it to the theatres in St.John's or Canmore, I'm sure it will be in Blockbuster soon (Disney is the North American distributor). It's incredibly imaginative and beautifully told. It's really pretty amazing. The story is about a girl who has slipped into the spirit world. The director has said it's a story for anyone who has ever been 10 years old, or anyone who is going to be 10 years old.