Things sure haven’t been ideal at work lately. If you read the gaming news you’ll know that the project I’ve been working on (which I won’t mention here) has been put on hold. As part of this change I’ve been moved to a new project. A project that I have zero interest in.

I hate times like these. Going from something great to something terrible.

On the plus side, it means that I got my compensation time a little earlier than planned and I have enjoyed having the week off. We headed over to Salt Spring Island for the long weekend, and it was fantastic. They have one of the top rated Farmer’s Markets in Canada, and it definitely lived up to the billing. We love food, and it surely delivered.

We also had fun touring around the island. I think I could have stayed there forever. It reminded me a lot of small town life, and how in some ways I really miss that. I miss being in a community of friendly people where strangers say Hello on the street. A place that isn’t over run with the homeless. Most importantly, a place where life is a little more relaxed.

Once again, the thoughts of running my own studio have drifted back into my mind. It is pretty much a given that at some point I will end up working for myself or starting a company either myself or with others I know and would love to work with again. Being a low paid cog in a multibillion dollar machine can be a little depressing at times.

Enough of that, time for some pictures!

In addition to the Market, the view and the farms; we also found a great little restaurant. The kind of place we wish we could find around where we live. If you are ever in Ganges on Salt Spring Island I whole heartedly recommend that you should stop by Auntie Pesto’s (their homepage is under construction, so this is a link to the Salt Spring Island Chamber of Commerce site that has the pertinent details for the restaurant) for a bite to eat. I have never encountered such a perfect balance of quality, portion size and value. It was so good, we went twice and nearly trekked our way there for a third round with their menu.

And now it is time for a couple of days of dedicated gaming before making the return to the grind.

It could happen. All we have to do is annex Washington state from the US, and boom, Seattle is ours. Just a few short weeks after Seattle being acquired by Canada; Holly and I would move on down and live the life of Seattleites.

I’m not sure exactly how it would happen. Maybe we could trade the US part or all of Quebec for Washington state. I mean, Quebec keeps saying that it doesn’t want to be a part of Canada so it could just work. Not to mention that with the acquisition of Seattle, Canada would be where both Starbucks and Tim Horton’s were founded. How cool would that be?

This just in: Canada – Coffee Capital of the World!

Speaking of coffee, the next time that Holly and I are down in Seattle I’m going to take a picture of her at the original^[1] Starbucks shop. She’s a bonafide coffee addict^[2], so it only seems fitting.

Of course living in Seattle would present certain life challenges. You see, it would be impossible not to gain weight when the likes of Dahlia Lounge, Dahlia Bakery, Lola and Serious Pie^[3] are around.

This doesn’t even start to bring places like Racha Thai or Top Pot Doughnuts into the equation. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m willing to accept the challenge of eating all of that wonderul food on a regular basis. It would be a lot like how Holly and I eat now when we are at home, but with a lot less work for Holly and a lot fewer dishes for me.

Having a romantic dinner with Holly at Dahlia Lounge is one of the best experiences in the world.

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[1] : Okay, okay, it isn’t quite the original Starbucks location. It has moved about a block from the original spot in Pike’s Place Market. Just in case there is a coffee history nazi out there reading this.

[2] : 6+ cups a day!

[3] : Seriously, the best pizza pie you can find.

Apparently I haven’t blogged in a while.

Well, it is now Friday and I’m still pretty much asleep so I’ll do this while I wake up.

Christmas was fantastic. I had a great time going back to see my family!

Unchristmas, which followed, was also fantastic. I got so much that I couldn’t even begin to list it all. The Zune was a complete shock. I can’t even imagine what the look on my face must have been when I was rooting through my new laptop bag and found that!

This past week we have been getting up crazy early. You see, we were given notice that there was going to be construction going on that would block off the driveway to our building. Supposedly it would be starting at 7 am, so we had to be out of the house by 7 am.

We set the alarms for 5:15 am and tried our best to make it out by 7 am. The first day we did great. We were out of the house by 6:30 am and went for breakfast. Breakfast was mostly unsuccessful for me. For some reason I just couldn’t get the omlette down. I still say that it was just too god damned early for my tastebuds and my stomach.

The second day was a little rougher. We made it out about 7:05am. No construction crew in sight.

Today, the third day, we slept in. Holly got up at 6:30 am and called the construction foreman who informed her that they wouldn’t actually be blocking off the entire driveway when they finally got around to doing the work. Back to sleep we went. I slept in until 8:15am. It was glorious.

As a side effect of this I have learned some interesting things about traffic while trying the commute at different times this week.

Day of Week	Time Leaving Home	Time Arriving at Work	Total Time
Average Previous Day	8:00-8:15am	9:30am	75-90 minutes
Wednesday	7:30am	8:50am	80 minutes
Thursday	7:10am	8:50am	100 minutes
Friday	8:45am	9:30am	45 minutes

So what I’ve learned here is that the longer I procrastinate, the faster I get to work. That’s a great life lesson.

Interestingly the commute home gets shorter at the same rate as the commute to work. To the point that if I leave at 6pm, I get home at the same time as if I had left at 5pm. I essentially get home at the same time, no matter when I leave. It is a twilight zone-esque situation.

Other than that the only news is that I have officially started what I call “The Atkins”. I look forward to my reunion with carbohydrates.