Has My Brain Exploded?

Hmmm, I'm a half day into the AU conference, I've had one class and I think I'm on overload already.

Observations so far:

Good to be a female. No line ups for the bathroom.
Good food
Weird town, Vegas is. Completely off the wall. I saw people cheering and crying in the casinos. Poor pitiful gamblers. Also, saw an ad for "Strippers Direct to You". Hmm....

I will try and keep my brain contained.

Out in Deep Water....

Well, the Vegas conference (for those who don't know, Autodesk University) is fast approaching and I'm starting to feel a little out of my league. I'm going to an elite conference with 7000+ people from around the world. I am going to mingle. I am going to be asked for my opinion on multi-million dollar software. I am going to be grilled by people just starting out on Autodesk Building Systems (fancy 3D CAD for engineers). I am I sure this is right?

I can't help but feel a little like there's been some mistake or something. These people that are emailing me, setting up times to meet and chat AutoCAD, don't really want to pick MY brain. After all, if you count SAIT, I've only been doing AutoCAD for 3 1/2 years. Do I know as much as I think I do? Will I be succinct and not embarrass myself? Can I manage to speak to people that I perceive as my elders without turning beet red? Will I learn enough that my bosses won't regret sending me? Did I pack enough business cards for all the door prizes?

Suddenly, I feel very adult. I have a house, a husband, and I'm going on a business trip (all expenses paid of course) to attend a conference. Somehow this doesn't quite seem real. But, I must be doing something right, since my yearly performance review was glowing and the bosses had no complaints. They couldn't even suggest that I tidy up my desk! So, with a second wonderful review and another healthy Christmas bonus under my belt, I will attempt to act the part next week. Wish me luck.

Grating, really....

Ha ha. I had to put in the pun.

I was making pizza for dinner yesterday and (I'm sure you can all see where this is going) I decided to grate the cheese by hand instead of using my Moulinex. Well. That was just a bad idea. I neatly grated into my thumb and cut a nice, deep 'v' shaped cut in the tip, and grated straight through the middle of my nail about a 1/3 of the way down. There were some choice words said. Don't worry, no bits of Sheila made it into the pizza! Now it just hurts and is at that weird stage where it's not bleeding, but it catches on pretty much everything which hurts like the dickens. Ick.

Anyway,

I'm getting pretty excited about going to Vegas next week for Autodesk University. There was a live webcast this afternoon for newbies, which was very helpful and made me even more excited! Whee!!! It'll be weird to travel by myself again though. I haven't done it since Australia which was 8 years ago.

Crazyness anyone?

I got a letter in the mail yesterday from the sales person at Cedarglen. She just wanted to write a quick note to let us know that they are releasing the final phase of our houses (semi-detatched) and if we wanted to refer anyone to them, etc.

The thing that got me though was the starting price: $320,000.

I was completely floored. I had to go to Cedarglen's website this morning to see if they had changed the size or if it was gold plated or something. Nope. Exactly the same floorplan and size.

So in about a year and a half, Nathan and I have made about $135,000 on our house. Which doesn't do us much good unless we want to move out of Calgary. But it's a comforting thought nonetheless.

So I must give thanks to the Impatience Fairies for making me push to get a house last summer. If we had waited until this year, I'm pretty sure we would have been screwed.

New Blog Look

Well, I decided to switch over to Blogger in Beta. I think it looks pretty good so far, but I'm really looking forward to being able to edit the look of the blog without having to deal with html. Yea! We'll see how it works. If it doesn't, I can always slog through the html edit page. Maybe one of these weekends I'll actually have time to sit and play with it!

Poem to think on

When I was in Australia I went to the Irish shop in one of the malls and they had this little basket of tiny rolled up scrolls. On each of them there was a quotation. The one that I picked was:

I am the Master of my Fate:
I am the Captian of my Soul.
- William Ernest Henley

I just recently found out that this is actually the end of one of Henley's poems (didn't know he was a poet at the time), Invictus. These 2 little lines gave me much strength during those hard months in Australia, and now I find that the poem is even more inspiring. I thought I would share it with you all.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.

~William Ernest Henley

???

And for something completely different.... Where the heck did my post about feminism go??? Grumble, grumble....

Shopping in Airdrie

Last weekend Nathan and I decided to boycott Market Mall and went shopping in Airdrie instead. It was great. It may be a city, but it's still got that small town feel to it. We got everything that we went for, plus a free Tuborg beer tray! Yea for Tuborg! Maybe the idea of a supermall in Balzac isn't so crazy after all.... I think I will definately go there instead of Market Mall, once it's built. It took us all of 15 minutes to get to Airdrie, so Balzac will be shorter than that. For all of you that don't know about the Balzac supermall, check it out here. Our office in Toronto is doing the mechanical.

In other news, I've been feeling the pressure of living in a big city, the looming Christmas rush, and the feeling of being stuck in a rut. In an effort to combat such morose thoughts, I've decided to think about one beautiful and amazing thing a day. The thought for yesterday was: Hoar Frost. It's so pretty and I just love it. It gives everything a wonderful "wintery" look. Contemplate the wonders of hoar frost if you get a minute. Isn't it just incredible?