I've officially gone insane... I have the worst craving for super-spicy chicken wings... I don't even like chicken wings! next I'll be wearing a cap backwards and ordering a budweiser... anybody knows a good exorcist?

I just found the 6 seasons of Sex and the City at a megasale price! :)
who said money cant buy happiness? or maybe it's sales that can...

changes

It's weird... my sister is moving today. She rented a house in the Laurentian and might buy it in January if she likes it.

It's the first time the Ranger clan will be split up permanently...

Over the years we've all traveled for extended periods, moved in (and out) with boyfriends, left for jobs for months at a time... so the family home was not complete all the time, but it was always temporary.
Now, sis has a house, next year I should have a condo in Montreal... and baby sis is talking of going to work for Disney Florida...

It's weird...

Stanley Cup in 2009!!!

When a french, hometown rap band writes a new cheering anthem for the Habs.. you know it's hockey fever in Montreal!




TO-NIGHT! TO-NIGHT! TO-NIGHT!
everybody's giddy like kids before xmas! :)

Go HABS Go!!

WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!
Tomorrow night is the first official match of the season for the Montreal's Canadiens!!!
Which means watching the game at Baloo's with beers, European sandwiches (fancy name for big hotdogs with sauerkraut:P) and loads and loads of hockey deprived friends :D

all together now! ♪ Tananananananana-hey! Tana-nana-nana-nananananana-hey! Tana-nana...

Hey, winter has got to be good for at least ONE thing :P

phone call from the East

I finally got my phone call!!!! ... and I'm nowhere closer to a departure date... :S

They have submitted my name to Petro-Canada and Husky Oil.. standard procedure, they have to approve me. Should take another week before the OK stamps arrive.
They are trying to find a place in Montreal where I could do the survival training, so I don't have to go to St-Johns. Once this is done, I have to do another medical (tell me why again I did all this in Aberdeen?) and then some more training in safety and procedures...
THEN I'll be allowed to work.. except that I wont exactly be working :P...

They have a new big project coming in January, which means all team will be reorganized and I'll have a permanent spot on one. 21/21 on rigs, 28/28 on vessels. For good... or until I get an offer from Mr "Jack Sparrow" Burt in Florida ;)

Until then, I will be on a team, but only to shadow operations and practice playing with the controls so I can learn :) I'll be working with a Magnum ROV (one of the puppies in the pics above).
I wont have a fixed schedule, I'll know 2 to 6 days in advance when I'm going somewhere, and not necessarily for 21/28 days at a time. Between trips, there's a legal minimum of 7/14 days off I have to have, but after that period, all bets are off on when I leave again.

They also want to send me to Morgan City, Louisiana, Nov 3-14, for another electronics course! :D
I've never been to Louisiana... I really want to go to Louisiana!!! weehee! (or yeehaaw?!)

They also provide all clothing! All I have to bring is my steel cap boots... the coveralls, shirts and winter coat(!) are conform to regulation (visibility and fire retardant) and free of charge :)

And, to top it all, they pay all my expenses, door to door. When they send me somewhere, for whatever reason -course, training, work-, I get paid for it, the plane and hotels are paid in advance, and they reimburse me all food bills! (Ok, I know it's standard for most business.. but I've never had that before and I'm excited :P)

And another good news: all their rigs and vessels have women on it... but I'm the only rov girl in the company. Which is just perfect. That means I wont be treated like shit for wreaking an all-boy environment, but will still get enough attention to flatter my over-sized ego :P
(plus I wont have to share my room with a smelly neanderthal hehehe)

The Oceaneering superintendant's wife was a pilot at some point, but it was a while ago. So the guys know it's possible for a girl to be interested in rovs, but there's never been one on the rigs. Sounds like an Animal Planet show "They know women pilot exist, but they've never actually seen one". I'll be the first... poor them... ;)

So all n all, lots of answers. I feel much better knowing I'll be in full training mode for a while, before jumping in for real.
Only down side is that I can't plan anything in advance until next year :S Can't buy the Riviera Maya vacations, show tickets or Xmas Florida trip cause I have no way to know where I'll be when for the next 3 months. Hopefully they'll be able to tell me my fixed Jan rotation quickly, so I can at least reserve the Mexico gig more than a month in advance and save some $ :P

Kablamo!

For those of you who enjoy a cigarette with your morning coffee, you might want to rethink your ritual if you use non-dairy creamer instead of milk (don't see WHY you'd use that crap but hey) ... that powder is highly flammable, as was proven by the Mythbusters...

That's the big almighty explosion, but during previous testing, just a small cup of it went whamo! when ignited with a lighter, creating a dangerous back draft...



That will definitely wake you up in the morning :P
So repeat after me : ♪ there's nothing like the real thing baby♪ ... stick to milk and cream people!

full day

I had a good day yesterday... full and busy to keep me from thinking
Got my hair done in the afternoon.. Isabelle outdid herself! I now have 4 shades of red intertwined, a deep copper as base, two tones of golden highlights and a deep burgundy... looks very cool! I don't know what I'll do when Isa finishes her pharmacy degree and stops working at the salon.. she's a star!

Then I met Sean at Hurley's. We rebuilt the world around a Guinness and tried to make sense of the universe... my own small one and the bigger picture. I left there smiling, which is a rare sight these days.

I called Andrew and went to his place, Christian showed up too. Andrew's place is still a mess.. I wonder if he'll ever be done with the neverending renovations... I guess the answer is in the question :P

We finished the night off at Passeport, a bit of dancing, a bit of drinking, a bit of chatting...
It's weird, lots of people tell me my job is so cool and I kick ass to do it, to follow my dream and all... if it's so, why do I feel so inadequate all the time? I'll probably have the answer to that when I get on the rig... but I still don't know when that will be!!!! :S

Where have all the Rick Astley gone? ;)

No, like, seriously... where are they???

global warming has one cool consequence...

An architect has designed floating cities to host the 50 000+ people who will be affected by the rise of the oceans' level. Those islands would drift merrily all over the world, following the currents and tides...

Where do I sign to reserve a unit?

-----

In other news, I called again today for the job... they will call me back tomorrow morning... the assistant I talked to told me not to worry... HA! fat chance of that happening, I'm in full "I'm an incompetent fraud" mode.

I can't learn patience, so Life, please stop the lessons

I called Oceaneering today, the woman wasn't there, I left a message... guess I wont know until tomorrow where I"m going and when.

I want to go, want to go NOW! I need to keep my brain busy with new skills so it wont have time to think about him and wonder endlessly about why I fucked up so bad... why I couldn't be more patient and get on the taxi* at the right time instead of forcing things and screwing them up... I wrecked it...

So come on Ms Smart (yes it's her name) call me! tell me I'm going to ocean land next week! My serotonin levels are down the drain, right next to my hope of a happy ending...

*click on link for explanation

Enough with the cool rides!!!!

Ok, it's Fall.. car season.. but damn! do all the companies HAVE to hire such great designers??? I don't have money yet.. stop making me drool pointlessly!

in the top 3 of "I wish I'd won the lottery!!!" :

Those of you who live in Quebec all know Albator... well that's his bike!!! Looks straight out of a manga!!! It was to be only a prototype in 2001, but the crowd's reaction was so overwhelming that Suzuki decided to produce it (guess I'm not the only one with a deep affection for cartoons :P)... this giant can be yours for 15 000$ (superhero suit not-included).



For the princess in you.. Cinderella's racecar! Like her glass slipper, this car is translucent. It's made of a mix of fiberglass and Makrolon, a polymer mostly used for cds. The seats are molded plastic, covered with some gel for comfort.. like Dr. Scholl's soles :P
Retail price 1,5 million... guess you really have to be a princess to buy it.


And last.. another electric car! It was suppose to be available in 2005, but production problems caused many delays and it will be out only next year. Don't have much more details... but it's nice to see that companies are finally taking seriously alternative source of energy to power their babies...