I Heart 747s

I had a recurring dream last night. MOre accurately, I had a dream last night that I have had before. But it only occurred once last night.

I was trying to catch a plane at Heathrow (though it's my subconscious' version of LHR, it's not actually very similar to the real airport). It was a 747, but Air Canada (they don't fly those any more). I was very late, as in still in the cab approaching the airport when the plane should have been taxiing. Somehow I ended up making the plane (no memory of how) and got a seat that wasn't guaranteed -- maybe I was on standby? The seat was the very last one in the plane, right by the tail, but was still business class and very comfortable. Better than my business class seats last month, that's for sure. I was worried that the actual passenger was going to show up and bump me out of my seat, but must have dozed off because I was woken with a jolt when the plane suddenly moved. I thought "Hooray, we're taking off so my seat is safe!" As soon as I looked out the window I saw that we were just taxiing, but when the engines revved the plane instantly sped up, like a sports car would, rather than a however-many-thousand-tonne aircraft. We coasted up a hill, and then we all realized that we were going up a drawbridge that was open! We were clearly doomed to fall in the Thames, but the captain revved the engines again and we hopped over the water and landed on a road perpendicular to the bridge. Then (possibly a while later) we were moving fairly quickly and we had to go under a bridge, with the same magical-engine maneuver. This hop landed us on the left hand side of a highway, which amusingly now I realize was the correct side of the road in the UK but was incorrect in my dream. I found a bug in my dream! Anyway. We zoomed over to the correct side of the road, and then took off I assume. I don't remember anything after that point.

I think it's my standard "I'm going to miss my flight/train" dream, along with subconscious "what will you do then?" bits added on. I'm on the train to Toronto right now (will post this later, as there's no wireless onboard*).

* VIA has started offering pay wireless on their Toronto-to-Montréal trains in first class, soon throughout the train. I hope they eventually make it free and every train, at least in the commuting corridor. Would probably draw some more business from the "I blackberry while I drive down the 401" crowd.

Updateapalooza

• Lucky is fine. He was given an IV of fluids (they never say what kind of fluids*) overnight on Sunday, got another X-ray (which he loved) on Monday, and more bloodwork, and he was pronounced pretty healthy. But he has developed crystals in his bladder, which is common in male cats. If they keep growing, they can combine and create a urinary tract blockage, which is really trouble. So Lucky's now on new, 40% more expensive food, for the rest of his life if the vet gets her way. My tendency is to trust her completely, even though I've been well-trained by my nurse parents to not trust doctors. leapfish is distrustful of the private-sector aspect, and the fact that they only sell this magic crystal-dissolving prescription food at vet offices, nowhere else. For now we're feeding both of them this new food (since there's no way at the moment to keep them out of each other's food), which amounts to about $3.40 including tax to feed them each day. Yikes. Still less than we spend on ourselves of course. :)
  
  
• In Toronto today for what could be considered one of the first acts of my new managerial job. The original plan was to hire a Director of Instructors and Facilitators, who would be between the COO and me. I would be in charge of the technical instructor team, my friend would be in charge of the apps instructor team, and there would possibly be a third person in charge of the soft skills and project management facilitator team. When the budget was examined, they realized that you can't just invent new positions willy-nilly during a merger, so now we're got the COO, my old boss and new boss, me in charge of the technical instructors, my friend working on the apps instructors (in addition to numerous other projects), and a new person for the facilitator team. It's possible that someday she'll end up my boss as she has tons of the required skills for that Director position I mentioned, just no technical skills yet. Rather than answer an email she called me. Which was fine, just unusual for this company. She said "you guys are just wizards when it comes to email," one suspects due to our use of the Reply button.
  
  Anyway, meeting her in person today finally, and showing off my previous work, an internal instructor management system (web-based, petele has seen it and knows how much better the ASP.NET 2.0 version is gonna be). They book their facilitators using the old paper and pencil method, and I would like to wow them. Wish me luck!
  
  
• Work is getting me a new laptop to replace the piece of junk desktop I've been using. My boss has development plans for my spare time (maybe I'm not supposed to sleep any more?), so I told her that I can only do that by stealing a high-end classroom machine, and she instantly approved a laptop with high-end specs for me. Just realized I need more RAM than I requested though, so hopefully I can sneak that in before the order goes through.
  
  
• Another audition last night, this time for KWLT's Popcorn Plays V. The Popcorn plays are twelve ten-minute scenes presented in one show, with an ensemble cast of ten or so people playing multiple parts and filling production roles too. If I get a role I'll be directing a scene and stage managing another scene. Should be fun. I'll hear if I have a part by Friday I think.
  
  
• Anybody who knows ASP.NET 2.0 and wants a little for-pay project? Email me.
  
  
• Train's almost at Union Station. Better go.

* Just going for the joke here; I actually know what kind.

This looks like a job for nihilicious!

"Nathalie Prevost then called a local radio station to ask for legal advice..."

I don't even care what the rest of the sentence says, that's just wrong.

Winning Tim Hortons cup sparks row