Marz

Some lawyers at my wife's firm trekked to base camp and made a presentation on it. Apparently, it's an intense trip requiring lots of hiking at high altitude (Base camp is at 5340 meters = 17,519 feet), but it's a unique experience. If you google "Everest base camp trek" you will find companies that offer the trip. Good luck with that!!! I would love to do something like that some day.

Dude, that's awesome. I met my birth-mother about 6 years ago. It was a very overwhelming experience. I realized very quickly that I wouldnt have had the life I had if I hadn't been put up for adoption. I was extremely lucky. I also learned alot about my family history (I have 3 sisters and a brother from my mother and apparnetly another 2 siblings from my father's side) and medical stuff, which is important. I told my adoptive parents the same thing, that she might be the woman who gave borth to me, but I only have one mom... The biggest shock for me was meeting her face to face. She was MUCH older than I expected and very worn out. But I found out I had her eyes, which was cool when you haven't looked like anyone for all your life. I understand what you said about feeling love for someone you don't know. My advice is to take it slow and easy. Get to know her, and introduce others like your siblings gradually.Not to freak you out, because things went very well for me, but my sister's bio-mother started asking for things from my sister($$$) after they met and she was forced to cut all ties. Just make sure that it's all up front, that she knows you're not looking for anything. Anyhow Congrats and good luck. PM me if you want to chat more about my experience! Marz

Doesn't have an AAD but the kites have an emergency cut-away system so you don't get dragged. The kite I would get is actually a kitesurfing kite and can be used on water.

Anyone here do it? It's pretty popular around where I live and I am taking a lesson in a couple of weeks. I've been flying stung/traction kites for the last few years and now I wanna move to the big boys club. The guy I'm going to be learning from offers deals to his studens on new gear and I could pick up a complete 4-line 12 meter kite (inflatable) for $1000 CAD ($750 US). Any thoughts? Marz

I spent some time in Minnesota (sp?) and I would venture to say that people from there share language traits with their cheesehead neighbours LOL. Well, after all, alot of winsconsinites and minnesotans are from the scandinavian gene puddle.

Quote Well, Skydive Burnaby has a twin otter and just across the border into New york is: http://www.frontierskydivers.com Quote DUDE!!!! Burnaby, although probably one of the funnest and most scenic DZ in Ontario, is a good 6-7 hours from Ottawa.... Fun for boogies though!!!!! Skydive Gananoque is about 1.5 hours away. It's a cessna DZ but they run a 206 for tandems and students and a MINT 182 (to 12,500 in 20 mins) for licensed jumpers. They usually bring in an Otter on long weekends over the summer. Definitely worth the drive from Ottawa. It's got a great family feel and cool facilities. It's my home DZ. Can you tell? Marz

The thing is I hate people who are late too!!!! This is the ONLY place I have a problem with being on time. I read lots of stuff on here, stuff I can use and stuff I'll let go, but in thinking about this more over the last few days, I realized that my on again off again lateness has to do with my state of mind around my job. I think i've maxed out the "experience time" at this job and need to move on. Msybe I'm subconsciously trying to make shit as a message to my boss... I am now in the process of talking to a few contacts, and I finally picked up my business plan again. In the meantime, I will follow advice and try to get in early. Today, I was 12 minutes early, and she was there. She noticed. Thanks for all the feedback. I appreciate the honesty!

Quote can you get side ways in a slide(drift) and then recover like you can in a non all wheel drive car? Quote Ever watch car rallies on TV? You can definitely drift an AWD car but not the way you would a front or better yet rear-wheeldrive car like a Nissan 240, and it WONT work on pavement!!! Try gravel or snow with the right tires. As far as recovery goes, in my limited experience, I find that gunning it is about the best way to get a AWD to get back in the game out of a skid. I guess it puts power to the 4 wheels and you get traction?

Two words: Subaru WRX

Five years in June!!!!

Fair enough. I don't take comments as a flame. I mean I started this thread. Granted, some of the comments sting a little, but I can't really argue. The bottom line is that I either shape up or ship out. The work I do, while interesting for the first little bit, has now loss its luster, and that probably explains my attitude towards work/getting in on time etc. Although I hae made a concerted effort to play by the rules, there are obviously still fuck-ups on my part. The decision to leave has been clear in my mind for awhile now. I am in the process of cultivating contacts to get out of here, as well as exploring business opportunities of my own. I just have to put up with it a little while longer. We'll see who cracks first. I either resign or she fires my ass. Either way, it might be the motivator I need.

I'm not saying I don't have a part of responsibility in this. However, I don't believe that her approach to this matter is conducive to a productive work environment. We've has several problems in the past. I am very much an A-type personality and I tend to voice my opinion regarding the cases I work on, as well as things I'm asked about that I know a thing or two about like office management sofware. Apparently, speaking confidently is against office culture here and according to her (and to her boss), this makes me "an embarassement" and "not worthy to represent the office in public." As such, I was denied training that every other case manager went on (element of which were actually implemented as office policy!) as "training is a privilege" for which i didn't prove myself worthy. That very much upset me and I let her and the big boss know this and he proceeded to tear a strip of me for an hour. That was when it all went south and the time management emails started.

I'm not late everyday. And maybe it's the way I was raised and the work culture I was involved in the past but I ride a desk for a living now. In that context, I reckon there's "late"- more than five minutes and then there's plain stupidity!!!! I worked here for two years before this woman took over as manager and never had a problem. And I do plan to get here early. Like I said, my kid doesn't always cooperate and either does the traffic. I guess I'm being a little defensive there...

Ya THINK?????

I had it out my my manager on a few occasions over the last few months and she's been on my case ever since. She is now keeping tabs on my hours at work!!!! I got the following e-mail yesterday: Hi Martin, Now that your holidays are over and the flu bug is now gone, I have started to, once again, see a pattern of tardiness. While I realize it may be just minutes, you requested a different start time to assist you in getting in on time; yet that doesn't seem to be working. Friday (Jan 21) you were approx 4-5 minutes late. Monday (Jan 24) you were 2-3 minutes late. Today (Tues Jan 25) again you were late (8:50 AM arrival). We are paid to work a 7.5 hour day and the expectation is that you will be at your desk at 8:30 (the start time you selected) and leave for the day at 5:00. Your punctuality has been an ongoing issue and this has been discussed with you repeatedly. Now I gotta put in context: my wife's car broke down this week and I have to drive our son to daycare in the morning, and I don't control the traffic. And Whjen I was 10 minutes late, I called to let the office know. Now I stress out every morning on my way to work because I don't want to be 3 minutes late!!!! That's fucking stupid. I am presently looking for more work and I have a good mind to walk out of here, but I'm scared to screw myself if I do... I need advice. Be honest. What do you think and what would you do?

I was set up for a blind date by this couple I know and the girl is now my wife!!!! We all went out for dinner together the first time so that made it a little less awkward. But obviously we had a good time and I drove her home and got her telephone number. I called her a few days later and the rest is history. Sometimes good things can happen on blind dates!

Wel, here's what I know regarding tickets. I know for a fact that New York State has an agreement with Ontario and Quebec that a driving offense by a Quebec or Ontario driver in that state is reported to the province. It DOES appear on your driving record and you will lose the demerit points, and they will send collections after you! I speak from experience on that one. What you said about Canadian cops also applies to NY cops for me... I don't know what the deal is with FLA. You might wanna check it out with you state's DMV. There is an assload of Canadians down there in winter and I wouldn't be surprised if they have a similar agreement. I just don't know if it goes both ways.

Al, The planes won't start but apparently the beer taps work just fine at the Brass in Aylmer! Who needs planes? Isn't 90% of skydiving about talking shit anyways? LOL See ya Friday? Marz

Oh. I though of firing my boss many, many times!!!! _________________________________________ Did I just kill another thread?

If I fire-bomb my boss's house in a work-induced moment of rage, could that be defended as a "crime of passion" in the courts? Discuss...

I have a few friends that did tandems because of me. Most importantly is that when I was driving my GF home from our second date five or so years ago, she asked me what I was up to tomorrow and I said "I'm going skydiving. Would you like to come?" (I had about 30 jumps at the time). She smiled and said "sure!". So she took her first tandem the next day. When she told her mom, she said that if her daughter was crazy enough.. blabla, it must be love and we were going to get married. well, my GF signed up for her AFF the next spring and we in fact got married! Ange quit jumping when she got pregnant with our son and has now chosen to retire from the sport. She said that if she hadn't met me she would have never taken that first tandem... AWWWWWW how sweet.... OK I'm done

One of my favorites comes from Russell Crow in "Master and Commander": To our wives and lovers.... May they never meet!

My first year was very tough. I had alot of wreckage to deal with, but things got good around year 3. Finished University, got a good job and met the girl that's now my wife. Life showed up around year seven though and I found out that you don't have to get high or drunk to make a mess of your life!!!!! Addiction has a weird way of popping up under different forms!!!! I'm glad I had close friends that helped me pulled my head out of my ass before everything went totally to shit....

I never used heroin, but a friend of mine did. He's 38 but looks in his mid-twenties. I asked him once how come he looked so young and he grinned and said: "I took a ten-year nap!"

I have to go for "Jingle Bell Rock". _________________________________________ Did I just kill another thread?