I just got back from a 4 day trip to my hometown, Sarnia. I was only planning on being there for three days, however the weather was just too nice yesterday, and I had to stay an extra day. I’m so glad I did! We had great weather both Thursday and Friday, so I spent the afternoon with Chet & Vera beside their pool; well, Chet was outside with us in the fabulous Tiki Hut while Vera & I baked ourselves pool-side. It’s too bad the weather didn’t cooperate on Wednesday, as that’s Vera’s “Wednesday afternoon pool day” with her friends, so only Denise showed up (it was cloudy & it actually rained for about 30 minutes.)

It was very nice to relax and recharge before starting the new job on Monday. Although I thought it was funny that I had to email my new boss to ask him what time I should show up on Monday.

And now I’m back home, just got back from running a couple of errands, and I’m all set to watch some more Olympics tonight!

So this week I am enjoying some time off, where I’m sleeping in, doing a lot of knitting, and watching a ton of Olympic coverage. And that’s good, because next week I start my new job! Yes, yet again, I am changing jobs. I always hate leaving my colleagues, as everyone there is great, but it was time to move on. I managed to find myself a job that’s much better, AND is in another city! I’ve been trying to find a job outside of Toronto for the last couple of years, and while I would have preferred Vancouver, Waterloo is good too. It’s small enough that I can relax and enjoy the small town life, yet still close enough to Toronto that if Melanie or Jana get really wicked concert tickets I can still pop into town to see the show with them.

The new job is an official step up into Senior Technical Writer land, although I have already done the position at a previous company, this one’s official and everything. I’m excited because there’s an actual tech writing team, an actual tech writing manager (who’s also a writer), plus tons, and TONS of work! The fact that they’re paying me a bunch more money than I’m making now is also a bonus, but not entirely the main draw of the job. There will be lots of mentoring and editing of younger writer’s work, which is always fun. (Yes, I’m being serious here.) So all in all the move’s a good one for me.

Of course this means I’ll be commuting the 100kms each way to Waterloo till the spring time. I want to wait through the probationary period before making any decisions, because who knows, I might not like them, and they may not like me! Okay, that’s highly unlikely, that they don’t like me, but whatever. And after having already moved this past winter, I don’t want to do it again. So I’ll be waiting till the spring time to move. This means I’ll be putting a ton of kilometers on my beloved new Mazda 3, but that’s okay, since I’ll be keeping the vehicle after the lease is over. By the time the car turns one next spring, I will have put on twice the amount of kms that I’m officially “allowed”. *gulp* But since I’ll be keeping the car anyways, that’s not a problemo. If I were to give it back, then I’d be in some serious trouble, as they tend to charge more for that.

So there you have it! New beginnings for me in the workplace.

Yep, it’s a snow day here in Toronto, and no, it’s not because we’re not used to getting any sort of precipitation. It’s because we’re supposed to get 15cms of snow in the next three hours, plus drifting & blowing snow with all the wind, and then some freezing rain this afternoon as the temperature rises, and then some more snow. So I’m working from home today. No need to make the trek to work in the truck if I don’t have to. Now if my office was downtown or somewhere on a subway line, there wouldn’t be any problems, as I could just hop on it and get to work fairly easily. Instead, I work up in suburbia, which necessitates a car to get there (yeah, I could take public transit, but it would take me 90 minutes to get there on three buses, instead of 25 by car.) So I made sure to bring home some work last night, logged into my work email this morning and will be hard at work in a little bit. I actually did get up an hour earlier this morning just in case it would be okay to drive in, but after listening to the weather report and seeing the radar pictures, I’ve decided not to go.

Yes, that’s right, only 6 days left till I move to the new pad, and I’m excited! Of course that means I’ve gotta finish packing up here, and let me tell you, I sure am sick of packing. I’m down to the odds and ends, so it’s a little difficult to sort through. Tonight I’m going to pile up all the boxes in one area, and pile the stuff still to pack in another and see what’s left. But the end is in sight! Yippie.

Took some photos of the new place the other day, of course it’s still empty as I haven’t moved in, but I’m quite pleased and excited.

Here’s the view from the front of the building; that’s my balcony there on the right, first floor (or second floor, depending on where you’re coming from. )

And the lobby of the building:

These are the new appliances in the galley kitchen (forgive the yellowness of the photo, that’s the overhead light):

The view from the balcony is nice too:

The dining room:

The rest of the living room:

And finally, the view of my bedroom window:

Not bad, n’est-ce pas?