The boy is gone. We put him on a bus from Edmonton to Calgary this evening. I’ve discovered I’m not cut out to be a mom of a teenager. Thank goodness I’m only an aunt!

There’s a new roof is on and looks great. We let our contractor (neighbour) pick the shingle colour since we can’t see the roof from out back yard and he can. He picked a nice cedar blend and when you’re out in the alley the roof looks awesome.

The draft for my eLearning program is completed and I’m submitting it for review a day early (tomorrow instead of the 14th). I’m pretty pleased with it and hope the committee will be as well.

All in all, it was a great weekend.

Technorati Tags: weekend, update, roof, nephew

This week we’ve been playing host to our 17 year old “nephew” from Winnipeg. In a short span of time I’ve quickly learned that teenage boys spend as much (if not more) time on the phone as girls, the “me first” attitude drives me bonkers, and I’d never survive prolonged exposure to teens.

Of course, my views are somewhat coloured by the fact that I’m ensconced in my office working on my contract development work and only tend to see the boy when he comes to whine or complain about something.

Today he’s supposed to be helping the guys with general grunt work as they re-roof our house but every time I go outside to see if anyone needs anything he’s sitting down looking miserable. He certainly didn’t enjoy being asked by Drew to pick up the nails and old shingle spill-over that’s appeared in the backyard after lunch. Granted, it could be worse (‘cept, he doesn’t seem to see it that way). He could have been ripping shingles off the roof, lugging bundles of shingles up the ladder, installing the shingles, or hauling away the old shingles into the bin in the alley…

On Friday, we temporarily added 8 new feet to our household. We’re babysitting Snuggles and Rascal (don’t let the names fool you) while our friends are on vacation. Luckily for us, these two pooches are a bit smaller than mine, so if a war breaks out, they’ll probably end up doing about equal damage to each other. There’s no real unfair advantage.

Last night we found ourselves nearly shoved out of bed when 3 dogs hopped in. We’ve gotten used to Hypnos sleeping at our feet over the years, but Snuggles and Rascal seem to be more of a “middle to top” of the bed group of dogs. Hypnos wasn’t the least impressed and made friends with a green-eyed monster. We’re lucky that Hypnos managed to control his jealousy until we woke up!

Fenris, of course, isn’t the slightest bit interested in sleeping on a human bed when she’s got a perfectly good dog bed on the floor and wasn’t the least bit interested in the drama playing out above her.

As for my work contract, I’ve gotten sign-off on my template so the contract is 25% complete. *yippee*

I suffered a slight set-back on Friday when I was testing the content in a variety of browsers and discovered that IE 6 was completely messing up the formatting from my CSS. A bazillion hours of tweaking and testing later I’ve got it all fixed and have been slaving away today trying to get back on track. The draft is due to the review committee on Monday and I think I’m in good shape. I had 3 modules to complete between Friday and Sunday and have managed to finish up 1.5 of them. The day is still young and I still have all day tomorrow to work on it. I’m feeling pretty confident that it will all come together in time.

Technorati Tags: dogs, babysitting, teenage, boys, roofing, work

No time for Thursday Thirteen again this week but if all goes well and I stay on schedule, I should be back posting a T13 again next week.

Leave your link in the Mr. Linky widget and I’ll check out your T13 as I find some free time during the next few days.

Technorati Tags: T13, meme

The course site template is complete and awaiting final feedback and approval. In case you’re wondering, the template contains the graphics and coding that combines to create the course look and feel.

It also contains any common materials (help files, etc.) that will appear in all program courses. Having it all in a single template saves time and $$ in the long run as I won’t have to reupload and recopy these files as new courses need to be developed.

The course introduction and first module are complete (draft) and will soon be heading off to the SMEs and department managers for approval and sign off. I’m actually on-track with my original estimate and pretty damn proud of myself.

Have I mentioned I think they look damn spiffy too?

Granted, I’d never have managed the other two courses in the timeline requested. Somewhere an angel was looking out for me to ensure I didn’t burn out.

While I’m on the topic of small miracles, my former boss (what a wonderful lady she is) forwarded a copy of an email to me today. Apparently the project I was working on when I left my former employer is ready to launch and the traditional pat on the back email was sent out to everyone in the department (world-wide). One of the women I worked with in India who was responsible for a giant chunk of the project responded to the project manager’s original email specifically mentioning me and all my crazy hours and dedication to the cause. It’s nice to know I haven’t been forgotten and was appreciated – even if I did leave on a bit of a sour note at the end…

Gin: Your boy is on the phone again!

Technorati Tags: status update, ego boosting, T13

It’s Tuesday night. I should be out stuffing my gullet full of wings and drinking trendy beer with Drew, Wendy, Paul and Alex. Instead we’re slurping back spaghetti and I’m working my tush off on my contract assignment. The boy (refugee from Winnipeg) is running up my phone bill and Drew is prepping lunches for tomorrow.

I can’t believe how long the boy has managed to stay on the phone. He’s like a teenage girl. 3 hours and counting. He get’s cutt off in the next half hour or we won’t be able to call my mom or sister for the rest of the month. We’re on a budget here ya know…

Oh, and it’s my sister’s birthday. Guess who’s not getting a call.

Oddly enough, we’ve never spent more than 6 hours a month on the phone since dad died so we haven’t ever had to worry about a large – and expensive once it gets past the plan limit – phone bill in years!

Gin: you so didn’t warn me about this stuff.

Technorati Tags: nephew, refugee, Winnipeg, phone, teenagers