Jeffrey Vanneste’s Personal Blog

My broken xbox 360 is finally in Microsoft’s hands. It only took about 4 weeks this time and it’s not even over yet. If I’m lucky I’ll have a working 360 by the end of the week.

Due to the lack of gaming system I resorted to old school games to entertain. Tonight I tried getting some people together for some Starcraft.

There was only me and Sean. Sean went with his Protoss and I went with Zerg. Neither of us had played for a long time so we had to relearn the building order.  I attacked Sean first with a weak group of zerglings and hydras.  He retaliated with a lot of land troops to my main base.  Luckily for me, I had created 5 other bases so while he wiped out my main base I built up an army of air troops.  I sent them in to his only base and wiped it out for a win.  If I lost I totally wouldn’t be blogging about it.

I think tomorrow night we will try Warcraft 3. Any takers?

Well I’m back in Montreal.  My flight back was way better (I guess a matter of perspective) then last time.  I was not assaulted this time.  That was nice.  I also did not get sick which was also good.  I ate about 5 rolaids before getting on the plane, a banana (they always fix my stomach aches) and I bought a bunch of gravol just in case.  My first flight was to Toronto and I lucked out and got to sit in exec class so I had lots of room.  It was even better that Rachel’s ex-co-workers from Pharmalytics were on the first flight so I had someone to talk to.

The second flight from Toronto to Montreal was super quick.  I watched the X-Files pilot episode and when it finished I was in Montreal.  Rach picked me up and then we went out for supper.  Technically we got lost first, then we went for supper.  I think the place was called “Marathon” or something like that.  Imagine a greek Poverino’s.

Sunday we spent most of the afternoon at Costco.  Some how we got lost again.  We have been to Costco quite a few times here but all the turn offs look the same to me.  I’m pretty sure it’s not my fault.  I’ll blame anyone who will accept (or won’t deny) the blame.  I had in my head that I would only spend $200 at Costco but after applying the Costco principle we spent $350.  (Amount you expect to spend at Costco) * random(1.5, infinite) = (Total cost you will spend at Costco).  That’s my Costco formula.

Nothing special going on this week, my xbox 360 still has not been replaced (it’s been 3 weeks, I’ve been getting grumpy), lots of new TV to watch though.  In 2 weeks Rach and I are heading up to Quebec City for the weekend.  I expect some stories to transpire from that.

This week marks the end of many things for me. My last squash game for probably 6+ months tonight. Leaving Saskatoon on Saturday for 3 months. I’m determined to buy a new pair of shoes as my current pair all over 2 years old and giving me blisters. I’m trying to convince Rachel that I need some “sneakers”. Man that would be awesome. She says I’m not old enough yet. Either way, it will be great to discard my shoes.

The biggest thing to end though… my awesome gloves need to get replaced. In winter I always have them snapped onto my jacket so I never forget them. Huge skiing gloves. My Mom always makes fun of me with the huge gloves. At least my hands are warm. Well, the little latch broke tonight after squash. Some how when I got into Devin’s car my gloves clipped out the seat belt. When I unclipped it, the plastic broke. I screamed in agony (like Darth Vader, episode 3)

Tonight I will cry myself to sleep clutching my broken glove.

Crazy blizzard in Saskatoon right now.  My office sent everyone home as most of the roads were getting shut down.  People were stuck all along 8th street.  The university is apparently insane with everyone getting stuck.  You can’t see anything when you are driving.  This is what it feels like:

Looking from a webcam on campus this is how it looks out:

It’s a good thing I left work early as the radar map shows a lot worse to come:

Well I survived Ukrainian Christmas. I convinced myself before going that I would try every dish that was made. There was nothing that I really didn’t like except the sour kraut perogies. It was a good thing I didn’t eat all day as there was so much food. My favorite dish was some appetizer thing that was dough filled with mushrooms and onions or something. It had some Ukrainian name that I can’t remember.

After supper we played some card games. I was mentioning my previous victories in Hearts so we played that again first. I was a little worried my ego would get the best of me but I pulled out another win and even got power (or shoot the moon whatever you call it) once. I think I’m unstoppable at Hearts. After that we played 2 games of 31 which some how Devin won both. And for our last game we played a quick game of texas holdem poker. I was really lucky at this and won almost every hand. I lucked out on the last hand with an ace and 2 in the pocket and on the flop I had a full house with aces over 2’s. All in baby.

Dev and I made some pizza today and shared it with Hemant. We usually think it’s pretty hot but I don’t think he was phased by it at all. After pizza I finally got to see the new bond movie, Casino Royale. I’ve been hounding Brent to go but finally gave up on it. I figured I should check out the new Galaxy theaters at least once while I was back. Casino Royale was pretty awesome. I agree that it’s one of the best Bond movies in a long time.